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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A YEAR'S GOOD WISHES 




a year's good wishes 
in prose and poetry 

i compiled by martha c. 

Oliver, with xii illus- 
trations BY F. C. PRICE 



LUCK 
FORTUNE 
PEACE 
JOY 



HEALTH 
SUCCESS 
RICHES 
TALENT 



BEAUTY 
FRIENDS 
BOUNTY 
LOVE 



RAPHAEL TUCK- AND SONS CO. 
LIMITED, NEW YORK, MDCCCXCV 







Copyright, iSp^, hy 

Raphael Tuck and Sons 

Company , Limited 



PREFACE 

A BOOK OF WISHES! Has it ever 
occurred to the reader to wonder what the 
great, restless, seeking world is wishing for ? 
'' I wish " is the commonest form of expression 
upon the lips of humanity, whether it voices the 
souVs aspiration for the ''far-off unattainable 
and dim/' or simply reflects the passing caprice 
of an idle hour. 

It has been a curious and interesting study 
to collect, from random sources, the wishes, 
common or quaint, simple or philosophical, 
sentimental or practical, wise or otherwise, that 
appear herein. Many of them are merely little 
inter jectional fancies, snap-shot photographs of 
the mind, when, for a moment, it is off guard ; 
other selections contain the embodied wisdom of 
the ages. 



Caught up from here, there, and everywhere, 
as the wind of popular favor has drifted them, 
many of these wishes are waifs, nameless and 
unclaimed; but wherever the authorship of a 
selection could he ascertained, it has been duly 
credited. Apologising if, unintentionally , any 
individual rights have been touched upon in 
the use of such poems or extracts, I offer 
the volume to the public, hoping that it may 
prove as interesting in the reading as it has 
been in the making, 

MARTHA C OLIVER, 

Jacksonville, Illinois. 







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^■jc^i; nd may h^pis ^hy lipe-song be, 
// <,p ^1- Love ho Him t-fpaf- loveH^ H7ee ! 

Francos l^iillcy llavcrcjiil 




A YEAR'S GOOD WISHES 

New Years Day 



GRANT me a wish now, O bonny New 
Year,— 
What do you wish me from far or anear? 
Show me your gifts and your treasures rare. 
Read me your prophecies, dark or fair ! 
Wealth will you scatter, or fame, or power. 
Sympathy, knowledge, or friendship's dower — 
Gems from the Orient, pearls from the sea, 
Pledges and promises. Love's low plea? 
What lies before me of loss or gain — 
What is awaiting me, joy or pain? 
What is my portion of bale or bliss — 
Fate's cruel frown, or Fortune's kiss? 
Mysteries sacred, and sweet demands — 
Ministry, sorrow, and toiling hands? 
[I] 



Lift back the curtain, that I may know 
Whither my footsteps, this year, may go ! 
Will there be fountains along the way, 
Cooling my thirst by the night-time or day? 
Pillars of cloud through the day, and by night 
Pillars of flame that will guide me aright? 
Balms that will soothe me, or darts and stings ? 
Sandals for pilgrimage, soaring wings? — 
Wings are for angels; if mine should grow, 
Life everlasting I then would know ! 

Whate'er you wish then, O bright New Year, 

Whether that wish bring a smile or tear, 

Message and token it still shall be 

Sent by my Father through you to me. 

Lead where my path will from day to day, 

Still He will guide me along the way; 

This is His covenant, tried and true — 

"As is your day shall your strength be, too; " 

This is the word which my doubt shall soothe, 

"Crooked made straight, and rough made 

smooth.'' 
Naught will I question as on I plod — 
Whatever comes is the gift of God ! 

MARTHA C. OLIVER. 



[2] 



JANUARY 
Second Day 

BEHIND the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow 
Keeping watch above His own. 

LOWELL, 

A time to begin again! The old year's book 
closed and laid away upon the shelf of Time, 
never to be reopened until time is no more. 
Some of these closely written pages were traced 
in glowing lines, where love and hope, and 
youth perhaps, had left a shining trail of light. 
Others, which recorded some loss or sore defeat, 
were blotted and stained, but over them all, 
bright pages or dark, the dust of years and 
silence will gather. 

And here in the fair, new volume, open for the 
record of another year, invisible fingers will trace 
an unwritten history, which only celestial eyes 
may read. 

As the blessed angels turn 

The pages of our years, 
God grant they read the good with smiles 

And blot the ill with tears. 

WHITTIER. 

[3] 



JANUARY 
^ Third Day 

GREATLY begin, though thou have time 
But for a word, be that subUme — 
Not failure but low aim, is crime. 

LOWELL. 



That great mystery of Time ! the illimitable, 
silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, 
rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing 
ocean tide on which we swim hke little bubbles, 
like apparitions which are and then are not ; this 
is forever a miracle ; a thing to strike us dumb 
for we have no words to speak about it. O to 
make time the threshold to our eternity ! 

CARLYLE. 



I hear the muffled tramp of years 

Come stealing up the slopes of Time, 

Would they might bear, 'mid smiles and tears 
A train of hopes and dreams sublime ! 

JAMES G. CLARKE. 
[4] 



I 



JANUARY 
Fourth Day 

WISH you all sorts of prosperity. 

ALAIN KENE LE SAGE. 



The heart that knows how to fly high enough 
escapes those little cares and vexations which 
brood upon the earth and cannot rise above it 
into purer air. 

This be my wish then — Soar higher and higher 
as the days go on. Rise to a fuller vision of 
Christ and a nearer view of heaven ! 



If you wish to win bright laurels, 

Ere to God you yield your hfe, 
If while through the years you journey, 

You'd be valiant in each strife, 
If you'd nobly do your duty, 

Or the still, small voice obey, 
Sit not idly thinking, dreaming. 

But work earnestly to-day. 

LUCETTE. 

[5] 



T 



JANUARY 
Fifth Day 

HE gentleness of all the gods go with thee ! 



SHAKSPEARE. 



May this be the glory that gathers round your 
daily experiences ! Homely, commonplace as they 
may be, they are preparing you for something far 
greater and more perfect than themselves. Be 
true to them, learn them down to their depths, 
and they shall open heaven to you some day. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, 
In thy heart the dew of youth, 
On thy lips the smile of truth. 

O, that dew, like balm, shall steal 
Into wounds that cannot heal. 
Even as sleep our eyes doth seal ; 

And that smile, like sunshine, dart 
Into many a sunless heart. 
For a smile of God thou art. 

LONGFELLOW. 
[6] 



M 



JANUARY 
Sixth Day 

AY this year be your best year \ 



God bless the glad young year, we pray, 
God bless alike iis shade and shine, 

And shoot athwart its darkest sky 
Some rainbow beam of love divine ! 



Behold 1 it dawns in skies of blue, 
A token fair to great and small — 

" God make this year so fresh and new 
A year of blessing to us all ! " 

HELEN MARION BURNSIDE. 



Good morrow ! Good morrow ! 
What words shall we borrow 

To wish thee good cheer? 
May hope with its brightness, 
And mirth in its lightness. 

Surround thy New Year. 

[7] 



JANUARY 
Seventh Day 



W 



HAT will come and must come shall come 
well. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 



Yours be the key upon which is inscribed, "If 
I rest I rust.'' This is the key before which all 
doors swing wide. Not resting idly in a golden 
casket to be used only upon rare occasions, but 
like a sturdy little servant of a faithful master 
unlocking the doors of honor and of trust. At 
its touch gateways of influence are opened, coffers 
are unlocked, yea, even hearts yield their treas- 
ures to its demand. For the name of the key is 
Love. 

Within the kingdom of my soul 
I bid you enter. Love, to-day; 

Submit my life to your control. 

And give my heart up to your sway. 

ADELAIDE PROCTER. 

If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to 
come, it will be now; if it be not now yet it 
will come : the readiness is all. 

SHAKSPEARE. 
[8] 



JANUARY 
Eighth Day 

THE snowflakes are falling 
And whirling around, 
And covering thickly 
The hard, frozen ground. 



Yet faintly and softly 
There comes to the ear 
A strain of sweet music, 
So liquid and clear, 

That we gather to listen, 
And wondering say, 
" It must be the voices 
Of fairies at play." 

And the snowdrops, which silent 
Have lain at our feet. 
Slowly ring their white bells 
In an answer so sweet; 

That Winter awakens, 
All nature draws near. 
And wishes her children 
"A Happy New Year." 

THE youth's companion. 
[9] 



JANUARY 
Ninth Day 

" "\/0U have heard, " said a youth to his sweet- 
X heart, who stood. 

While he sat on a corn-sheaf, at daylight's de- 
cline, — 
"You have heard of the Danish boy's whistle of 
wood? 
I wish that that Danish boy's whistle were 
mine." 

*'And what would you do with it — tell me?" 
she said. 
While an arch smile played over her beautiful 
face; 
"I would blow it," he answered; "and then my 
fair maid 
Would fly to my side, and would here take her 
place." 

''Is that all you wish for? Why, that may be 
yours 

Without any magic," the fair maiden cried; 
"A favor so slight one's good nature secures; " 

And she playfully seated herself by his side. 

ROBERT STORY, 
[10] 



I 



JANUARY 
Tenth Day 

WISH that we could make earth a foretaste 
of heaven. 



God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, 
And thrusts the thing we have asked for in our 

face — 
A gauntlet with a gift in it. 
Every wish is like a prayer with God. - 

MRS. BROWNING. 

No wish is good unless we can couple with it 
the petition, "Thy will be done." 

f 

Have courage ! keep good cheer ! 

Our longest time is brief, 
To those who hold you dear 

Bring no more grief. 

But cherish blisses small 

Grateful for least delight 

That to your lot doth fall, 
However slight. 

CELIA THAXTER. 
[II] 



o 



JANUARY 
Eleventh Day 

THAT the unexplored ocean of life bear 
up thy little craft safely ! 



May we feel that we are called to all the expe- 
riences that Christ had; that like our Captain, 
we are to be made perfect through suffering. 
May we feel that we are as ships that cross the 
tempestuous deep, forever swaying and rocking, 
forever lifted and lowered by the conflicting 
waves, but safe through all storms; that the 
troubles through which we pass are waves, that 
life is a voyage, and that we are ships making 
haste to cross the deep. 

BEECHER. 

O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea. 

Our thoughts as boundless and our souls as free. 

BYRON. 

My bounty is as boundless as the sea. 

My love as deep : the more I wish for thee. 

The more I have, for both are infinite. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

[12] 



w 



JANUARY 
Twelfth Day 

ISH me a wish that will surely come true ! 



Wishes are good, but words, sometimes, are bet- 
ter. You wish your friends to know that you 
love them. Then tell them so. Do not keep 
the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness 
sealed up until those friends are dead. Speak 
approving, cheering words while their hearts can 
be thrilled by them. The things you would say 
when they are gone, say before they go. The 
flowers you would send for their cofhns, send to 
brighten and sweeten their homes before they 
leave them. Thus will your wishes become 
heavenly messengers. 

Speed onward wherever God's angels may guide 
thee; 
No fancy can dream and no angel can tell 
What faith and what blessing walk ever beside 
thee, 
Or the depth of our love and our hope as they 
swell ! 

[13] 



JANUARY 
Thirteenth Day 

'nr^HEY also serve who stand and wait. 

Why shouldst thou sigh, with sorrow 
And wish the morrow, 
My heart? 
One watches all with care most true; 

Doubt not that He will give thee, too. 
Thy part. 

Only be steadfast; never waver 
Nor seek earth's favor. 
But rest; 
Thou knowest that God's wish must be 
For all His creatures, so for thee, 
The best. 

PAUL FLEMING. 



There is nothing wanting to make all rational 
and disinterested people in the world of one 
religion but that they should talk together every 
day. 

POPE. 

[14] 



JANUARY 
Fourteenth Day 

THE best wish of all is — God be with you ! 
Central among all other things is the 
fatherhood of God, and when we are inspired 
to say from the heart, "Our Father," we have 
touched the very height of that to which we shall 
come through the ages. We can have but faint 
thought of that which is divine and eternal, but 
we know that there is a fulness and tenderness 
and glory in the thought that lifts us heavenward 
as upon wings. 
May this tenderness be around you to-day ! 

O that I could forever sit 

With Mary, at the Master's feet! 

Be this my happy choice; 
My only care, delight, and bliss, 
My joy, my heaven on earth be this, 

To hear the Bridegroom's voice. 

This oblation of a heart fixed with dependence 
on, and affection to. Him, is the most accepta- 
ble tribute we can pay Him, the foundation of 
true devotion and life of all religion. 

LOCKE. 

[15] 



JANUARY 
Fifteenth Day 

'ROM East to West, from North to South, 
May God still watch o'er thee ! 



If our religion is a real, living thing, we feel 
God actually coming to us Himself in all the 
unknown things that are to happen. 
There is something better than wishing — 
there is knowing. To know that He is always 
coming to us, and that there is nothing happen- 
ing to us which is not His coming, — to know 
all that, is to find the most trivial life made sol- 
emn, the most cruel life made kind, the most sad 
and gloomy life made rich and beautiful. 



May love and peace. 
And blessings without end 

Wreathe all your path like flowers, 
Oh, my friend : 
And if a thorn should touch you where they grow 
Believe, indeed, I would not have it so, 

[i6] 



JANUARY 
Sixteenth Day 

WITH gratitude for past mercies, with con- 
secration of our lives anew to Thy ser- 
vice, with the prayer that Thy love may blot out 
our past sins, that we may be solaced and sus- 
tained in all the cares and dangers of the com- 
ing year, even so, O Lord, we come to Thee. 
Grant, we pray thee, this New Year's wish and 
prayer. 

Who comes dancing over the snow. 
His little soft feet all bare and rosy? 

Open the door, though the wild winds blow; 
Take the child in and make him cozy, 

Take him in, and hold him dear; 
He is the wonderful New Year. 

Make him a wish, be it sad or gay. 

Welcome him now and use him kindly; 
For you must carry him, yea or nay. 

Carry him with shut eyes so blindly. 
But whether he bring joy or fear. 

Take him ! God sends him — this good 
New Year. 

[17] 



JANUARY 
Seventeenth Day 

So live that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night 
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and 

soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

BRYANT. 

At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw. 
And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again. 

CAMPBELL. 

I wished, and I dreamt that a white mist arose 
Where the hedgerow brambles twist, 

I wished that my love was a sweet wild rose 
And I the silvery mist ! 

I wished that my love was a jasmine flower 

All covered with snowy bloom, 
And I wished that I were a honey-bee 

That drank the sweet perfume. 

[i8] 



JANUARY 
Eighteenth Day 

MAY every succeeding day be your best day ! 
No man has learned anything rightly 
until he knows that every day is Doomsday. 

EMERSON. 



Turn over a fair, new leaf; the old is blotted 

with grief; 
But the young Year's eyes are like sunny skies, 
Turn over the leaf. . 

MARY A. LATHBURY. 



Shape to thyself the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made, 

And fill thy future atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade. 

Still may thy soul around it call 

The shadows which it gathered here; 

And, painted on the eternal wall, 
The past shall reappear. 

WHITTIER. 

[19] , 



L 



JANUARY 
Nineteenth Day 

OOK up, not down ! 



O may thy tossing soul find anchorage 

And steadfast peace; 
Thy love shall rest on His; thy weary doubts 

Forever cease. 
Thy heart shall find in Him and in His grace 

Its rest and bliss. 

Christ and His love shall be thy blessed all 

Forevermore ! 
Christ and His light shall shine on all thy ways 

Forevermore ! 
Christ and His peace shall keep thy troubled soul 

Forevermore 1 

HORATIUS BONAR. 



Religion gives part of its reward in hand. . . The 
present comes of having done our duty, and for 
the rest, it offers us the best security that heaven 
can give. 

TILLOTSON. 

[20] 



JANUARY 
Twentieth Day 

MAY there be enough of human love to 
sweeten life for you, and enough divine 
love to make your future assured. 

As in this life we awoke into consciousness in 
the arms of loving friends, so may we wish and 
hope that our next waking will be bosomed by 
that eternal love which provided this shelter for 
us here. 

F. H. HEDGE. 

That best portion of a good man's life, — 
His little, nameless, unremembered acts 
Of kindness and of love. 

WORDSWORTH. 

As earth is thy work-house, may heaven be thy 
store-house. 

As pilgrims on their earthly way 

Consult their maps from day to day, — 

So mayst thou find thy guidance sure, 
And may thy sweet belief endure. 

[21] 



JANUARY 
Twenty-first Day 

LIVE not without a God! however low or 
high, 
In every house should be a window to the sky. 

W. W. STORY. 

May we behold Christ, not as a task-master, 
rigorous and exacting, but as a God full of ten- 
derness and love. May the way of prayer be 
easy and access to the throne of God be short. 
While we take everything may we claim nothing. 
May we live less by fear and conscience and 
more by the nobler impulses of love and trust. 

BEECHER. 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment 

to decide. 
In the strife of Truth and Falsehood, for the good 

or evil side; 
Some great- cause, Crod's new Messiah, offering 

each the bloom or blight. 
When to you this moment cometh, may you see 

aright. 

LOWELL. 

[22] 



o 



JANUARY 
Twenty-second Day 

MAY thy yesterdays look backward with a 
smile ! 

YOUNG. 



May your memories be sweet and pure ones. 
No unkind deeds to repent of, no hasty words to 
wish unsaid. For words and deeds make up the 
whole history of our lives. 

Like the dew on the mountain, 
Like the foam on the river. 
Like the bubble on the fountain. 
Thou art gone, and forever ! 

SCOTT. 

Leave the low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
Till thou at length art free. 
Leaving thine out-grown shell by life's unresting 
sea! 

HOLMES. 

[23] 



JANUARY 
Twenty-third Day 

EAVEN prosper thee ! 



H 



Life is not so short but that there is always time 
enough for courtesy. 

EMERSON. 



This is my wish, beloved, 

Spotless and free 
So may thy soul, beloved, 

Evermore be. 

Guard well thy heart, beloved, 
Truth, dwelling there. 

Shall shadow forth, beloved. 
Her image rare. 

Truth, in her might, beloved. 

Grand in her sway. 
Beam in thine eyes, beloved, 

Clearer than day. 

[24] 



JANUARY 
Twenty -fourth Day 

IT is the miller's daughter, 
And she is grown so dear, 
That I would be the jewel 

That trembles at her ear : 
For hid in ringlets day and night 

I'd touch her neck so pure and w^hiteo 



And I would be the girdle 

About her dainty waist, 
And her heart would beat against me 

In sorrow and in rest. 
And I should know if it beat right, 

I'd clasp it round so close and tight. 



And I would be the necklace 

All day to fall and rise 
Upon her balmy bosom 

With her laughter or her sighs; 
And I would lie so light, so light 

I scarce should be unclasped at night. 

TENNYSON. 

[25] 



G 



JANUARY 
Twenty -fifth Day 

OD shield thee to thy latest years ! 

WORDSWORTH. 



Oh, to be ready when death shall come; 
Oh, to be ready to hasten home; 

No earthward clinging. 

No lingering gaze, 

No step at parting, 

No sore amaze, 
No cloud-like phantom to fling a gloom 
'Twixt heaven's bright portal and earth's dark 

tomb; 
But sweetly, gently, to pass away 
From the world's dim twilight into day! 



Wishes are wings to lift us or weights to retard. 
A wish may be our blessing or our doom. 



Friends am I with you all and love you all. 

SHAKSPEARE, 



[26] 



JANUARY 

Twenty -sixth Day 

^\70URS be the silent sympathy of love. 

New occasions teach new duties ! Time makes 

ancient good uncouth, 
They must upward still and onward, who would 

keep abreast with truth; 
Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! May we 

ever pilgrims be, 
Launch our Mayflower and steer boldly through 

the desperate Winter sea, 
Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's 

blood-rusted key. 

LOWELL. 

I know of nothing more beautiful to wish for 
you than that you may always look into loving, 
sympathetic faces. 

Hourly joys be still upon you. 

SHAKSPEARE. 
[27] 



JANUARY 

Twenty -seventh Day 

WHOE'ER she be, 
That not impossible She 
That shall command my heart and me ; 

Meet you her, my Wishes, 
Bespeak her to my blisses, 
Carry her my kisses. 

I wish her beauty 

That owes not all its duty 

To gaudy tire or glittering shoe-tie ; 

A face that's best 

By its own beauty drest. 

And can alone command the rest. 

Whate'er delight 

Can make the long day bright 

Or give down to wings of night. 

Days that need borrow 

No part of their good-morrow 

From a fore-spent night of sorrow. 

Life, that dares send 

A challenge to its end 

And when it comes, say " Welcome, friend ! " 

[28] 



M 



JANUARY 
Twenty -eightb Day 

AY this day be the golden clasp that binds 
the volume of the week. 



Another day of rest is yours. May it be enriched 
by the consciousness of the divine presence, that 
thus thou mayst comprehend something of the 
sweetness and strength of that tie which unites 
the Father and His children. This it is which 
brings us into sympathy with unseen things. This 
is our strength and joy in the Lord. iVnd so, may 
all intrusive thoughts and cares vanish in the light 
of this holy day so that the world may have no 
dominion over those who are living for the eternal 
years of God ! 

'' In His name " may deeds of kindness, 
Acts of mercy, words of love, 

Lift you near and nearer heaven. 
Nearer Jesus, throned above. 

IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. 

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so 
panteth my soul after thee, O God. 

PSALM 42 : I. 
[29] 



M 



JANUARY 
Twenty-ninth Day 

AY you live for the things which are 
eternal ! 



New mercies, new blessings, new light on thy way, 
New courage, new hope and new strength for each 

day; 
New notes of thanksgiving, new chords of delight ; 
New praise in the morning, new songs in the 

night ; 
New wine in thy chalice, new altars to raise ; 
New fruits for thy Master, new garments of praise ; 
New gifts from His treasures, new smiles from 

His face. 
New streams from the fountains of infinite grace ; 
New stars for thy crown, and new tokens of love ; 
New gleams of the glory that awaits thee above ; 
New light of His countenance, full and unpriced — 
All these be the joy of the new life in Christ. 

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. 

God give us grace each in his place 
To bear his lot, and, murmuring not, 
Endure and wait and labor. whittier. 

[30] 



JANUARY 
Thirtieth Day 

THINE be the love that guards 
When wintry tempests beat, 
That shelters from the storm 
And from the summer heat ! 

Not merely to make men love you and honor you, 
but to know how to be loved and honored without 
losing yourself and growing weak — that is the 
thing wisdom would wish for you. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

With temperate step from year to year 
To move within thy little sphere 
Leaving a pure name to be known or not ; 
This be thy lot ! 



Rouse to some work of high and holy love. 
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know, — 
Shalt bless the earth; while in the world above, 
The good begun by thee shall onward flow 
In many a branching stream, and wider grow. 

CARLOS WILCOX. 

[31] 



JANUARY 
Thirty-first Day 

^LY away — wintry storms 
Do not touch my love ! 



As a bird in meadows fair 

Or in lonely forest sings 
Till it fills the summer air 

And the greenwood sweetly rings, 
So my heart to thee would raise, 

O my God, its song of praise, 
That the gloom of night is o'er 

And I see the sun once more. 

FROM THE GERMAN. 



In every man's heart there is a holy city, a Jeru- 
salem, where, in some voice from the altar or some 
light above the mercy-seat, the Heavenly Father 
bears testimony of His goodness and tempts us to 
Himself. May we all Hsten to that voice and fol- 
low that hght 

PHILLIPS Brooks. 

[32] 








■^^^1 hen let- my whole life henceforH^ be 
ne Alleluia - son CI io Tl^ee ! 



1* 



Af"^ 


l^b^^^iSL^^S^Iv 








^^ Fortune love you* 


* — Shakspeare. \ 




^ 




^^^^ 





FEBRUARY 
First Day 

Jy^ EEP on trying. 

There is a purpose in trial just as there is a glory 
in victory. Whatever work is set for you to do in 
this world is God's work for you. After awhile 
you will forget that it was hard and will exult in 
the endurance and in the strength of purpose that 
grew out of your days of toil. 

Let me not live for self; but tell 

My anxious spirit how to cope 

With doubt and weakness, blasted hope, 

In souls where heavenly peace should dwell ; 

To help aright, 

Where fails the sight, 

On to the goal, eternal, sure, 

With purpose strong and motive pure. 

ELIZABETH CHERRY HAIRE. 
[33] 



FEBRUARY 
Second Day 

TV /TAY love interpret all your sorrows ! 

We pray that God will lift up the faces of those 
who look down with sorrow ! We call back no 
treasures taken from us by our Heavenly Father ; 
we rejoice that they have forgotten how to weep 
or cry, and that they, whose Hps faltered in their 
praises upon earth, have now joined in the exult- 
ant anthem of eternity, and that they love and 
remember us even in heaven ! May we feel this 
and so be comforted ! beecher. 

Sorrow in our happy world must be 
Love's deepest spokesman and interpreter ! 
Death knits as well as parts, and still I wish 
That tender radiance to infold us here. 

LOWELL. 

With love as a guide, 
Every day is a fresh beginning ; 
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain. 
And spite of old sorrows and older sinning, 
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain. 
Take heart with the day and begin again. 
[34J 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Third Day 

AY you always find the best nobility lies in 
real goodness ! 



What wish is better than that you make the best 
use of time ? Have you ever seen those marble 
statues, those perennial fountains through whose 
hands the clear water flows in perpetual stream, 
on and on, forever, while the marble stands there 
cold and passive, making no effort to arrest the 
gliding water? It is so that time flows through 
the hands of men — swift, never pausing, till it 
has run itself out, and there is the man petrified 
into a marble sleep, not feeling what it is which 
is passing away forever. Robertson. 

By all means, use sometimes to be alone ; 

Salute thyself, see what thy soul doth wear ; 
Dare to look in thy chest, for 'tis thine own — 

And tumble up and down whate'er thou findest 
there. Herbert. 

Go not so far out of your path for a truer life ; 
do the things which lie nearest to you. 

THOREAU. 
[35] 



T 



FEBRUARY 
Fourth Day 

HINE be the view of truth divine. 



Oh ! to Hve as seeing Him who is invisible ; to 
live as if beholding heaven, for then it would not 
be hard to live aright. Oh ! that the words of God 
may come to us with authority, delivering us £com 
those dim and misty visions which obscure our 
sight. For we need the conviction of the reality 
of the life to come to bear us through the troubles 
of this. 

Strive, man, to win that glory ; 

Toil, man, to gain that light ; 
Send hope before to grasp it, 

Till hope be lost in sight ! 

BERNARD. 

I cannot think but God must know 
About the thing I long for so ; 
I know He is so good and kind, 
I cannot think but He will find 
Some way to help, some way to show 
Me to the thing I long for so. 

SAXE HOLM. 

[36] 



A 



' FEBRUARY 
Fifth Day 

HAPPY home be yours ! 



No life is so sweet and satisfactory as that which 
is Hved with those who are in full sympathy with 
our aims and pursuits. 

Oh ! might we live together in lofty palace hall, 
Where joyful music rises and silken curtains fall ; 
Oh ! might we live together in a cottage mean 

and small, 
With sods of grass the only roof and mud the 

only wall ! fitzgerald. 

I would still outrun 
All calendars with, Love's whose date alway 

Thy bright eyes govern better than the sun. 

Oh ! if it be to choose and call thee mine, 
Love, thou art every day my Valentine. 

THOMAS HOOD. 

Marriage Wish. 
One heart, one joy, one grief thine now forever, 
Twain hearts, so long apart on Life's swift river. 
Love's bright smile hght thy home e'en till life's fall, 
And God's unchanging love brood over all. 

JOHN FULLERTON. 
[37] 



FEBRUARY * 
Sixth Day 

WHERESOE'ER thou move, good luck 
Shall fling her old shoe after. 

TENNYSON. 



And yet do not trust to luck. If you want to 
succeed in this world, you must make your oppor- 
tunities as you go along. The man who waits for 
some seventh wave to toss him on dry land will 
find that the seventh wave is a long time coming. 
A man can commit no greater folly than to sit by 
the roadside until some one comes along and in- 
vites him to ride to a position of wealth or influ- 
ence, on a wish. 

JOHN B. GOUGH. 



Somebody once preached the gospel of "luck 
and pluck." And it must be admitted that con- 
fidence and courage often win the day where dis- 
trustful merit loses it. The happy mean might 
be struck by wishing one to 

''Be bolde, be bolde, yet not too bolde." 
[38] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Seventh Day 

AY your speech be gentle ! 

A Wish. 
If words were birds 

And swiftly flew 

From tips of lips 
Of such as you, 

Would they 

To-day 
Be hawks and crows? 

Or blue 

And true 
And sweet? Who knows? 

Let's play to-day 

We chose the best 
Birds blue and true 

With dove-like breast ; 
Tis queer, 
My dear, 

We never knew 
That words. 
Like birds, 

Had wings and flew ! 
[39] 



FEBRUARY 
Eighth Day 

TV" EEP my memory green. 

There is something very human in the longing for 
love and remembrance. No soul, unless it is 
utterly friendless and forlorn, is willing to pass out 
of life through the gate of forge tfulness. We 
would always linger in the circle of memory and 
love. 

I fain would ask thee to forget ; 

'Twere best, perhaps, I were forgot; 
I raise the pen to write — and then 

I wish instead — "forget me not." 

When thou art present I would clothe my heart 

With holiest purpose, as for God himself; 
If other guests should come I'd deck my hair 

And choose my newest garment from the shelf; 
For them I while the hours with tale or song 

Or web of fancy fringed with careless rhyme, 
But oh ! to find a fitting lay for thee 

Who hast the harmonies of every time ! 

JULIA WARD HOWE. 

[40] 



L 



FEBRUARY 
Ninth Day 

OOK ! maybe you'll find violets beneath the 

snow : 
Indeed, I wish it so ! 



The heart is not always dead because it seems 
covered with ashes. Sometimes the fires of youth 
are glowing beneath the snows of age. Then with 
the first breath of Spring's balmy air comes resur- 
rection time. But I wish you better even than 
that : May your Springtime be perennial. 



Who would have thought my shrivel'd heart 
Could have recover'd greennesse ? It was gone 
Quite underground ; as flowers depart 
To see their mother-root, when they have blown. 

These are thy wonders, Lord of love, 
To make us see we are but flowers that glide : 
AVhich when w^e once can finde and prove. 
Thou hast a garden for us, w^here to bide. 

HERBERT. 
[41] 



L 



FEBRUARY 
Tenth Day 

OOK to the future and not to the past. 



Here's wishing you a happy future ! Who broods 
over the past loses courage for the future. Bury 
deep your mistakes, your sins if need be, and 
write on the gravestone, '' God being my helper 
I will begin anew and build better.'' Then 
humbly, prayerfully, hopefully, begin your work 
anew. 

Old Past, let go, and drop in the sea 
Till fathomless waters cover thee ! 
For I am living, but thou art dead ; 
Thou drawest back, I strive ahead 
The Day to find. 

SIDNEY LANIER. 

The heart that knows how to fly high enough 
escapes those little cares and vexations which 
brood upon the earth and cannot rise above into 
purer air. This be my wish then — Soar higher 
and higher as the days go on ! Rise to a fuller 
vision of Christ and a nearer view of heaven ! 
[42] 



FEBRUARY 
Eleventh Day 

THEY desire a better country. 
HEBREWS II : i6. 



O mother dear, Jerusalem, 

When shall I come to thee? 
When shall my sorrows have an end — 

Thy joys when shall I see? 

O happy harbour of God's samts ! 

O sweet and pleasant soil ! 
In thee no sorrow can be found, 

Nor grief, nor care, nor toil. 

No candle needs, no moon to shine. 

No ghttering star to light, 
For Christ, the King of Righteousness, 

Forever shineth bright. 

Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! 

Thy joys fain would I see ; 
Come quickly. Lord, and end my grief 

And take me home to Thee. 

BERNARD OF CLUNY. 
[43] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Twelfth Day 

AY you go head-foremost to the world but 
heart-foremost toward God. 



O Lord, who art our guide even unto death, grant 
us, I pray Thee, grace to follow Thee whitherso- 
ever Thou goest. In little daily duties to which 
Thou callest us, bow down our wills to simplest 
obedience, patience under pain or provocation, 
strict truthfulness of word and manner, humility, 
kindness ; in great acts of duty or perfection, if 
Thou shouldest call us to them, uplift us to self- 
sacrifice, heroic courage, laying down of life for 
Thy truth's sake, or for a brother. Amen. 

C. G. ROSSETTI. 

Was the trial sore? 
Temptation sharp ? Thank God a second time ! 
Why comes temptation but for man to meet 
And master, and make crouch beneath his foot 
And so be pedestalled in triumph ? Pray 
" Lead us into no such temptations. Lord ! " 
Yea, but, O Thou whose servants are the bold. 
Lead such temptations by the head and hair. 
Reluctant dragons, up to who dares fight. 
That so he may do battle and have praise. 

[44] BROWNING. 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Thirteenth Day 

AY your harp of life give forth sweet har- 
monies. 

Bereft 



My heart had many a foohsh, quavering song, 
In humble verse, and, mayhap, faltering measure ; 
But yet the halting harmonies gave pleasure. 

Nor did the day thus brightened seem so long. 

One skilled in music stood before my door : 
'^ What ! call you melody that careless crooning ? 
List, you shall learn a song to whose attuning 

Your heart shall thrill exultant evermore." 

He took my heart and smote it as he spoke ; 
Ay me ! how silver-sweet the interweaving 
Of chord and chord ! I gloried, scarce perceiving 

That — in the outswelling strain my heart had 
broke. 

Now in the long dark days my heart is dumb, 
And for my old lost lyrics I am longing. 
Or his, who from this witness to his wronging 

Might make more music. But he does not come. 

LOUISE BETTS EDWARDS. 
[45] 



FEBRUARY 
S. Valentine s Day 

HAPPY day of love ! We never grow so 
old but that the glow from young hearts 
strikes a responsive chord from our own. As 
we never outgrow the wish to be, ourselves, 
"Somebody's Valentine." 

A Valentine, 
I tell my secret to the night, 

I breathe it to the sky, 
I whisper it to all the clouds 

As they go sailing by ; 
I utter it to Hstening stars 

And to my lady-moon. 
And all the dark is filled with light. 

And midnight glows as noon. 

O listen, Sweet, and you will hear 

In bird-songs glad and free, 
How even tiny singing things. 

Break forth in jubilee ; 
And you alone can catch the note — 

The theme so pure and true — 
Because it breathes my secret thought, 

My love^ dear heart, for you / 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[46] 



I 



FEBRUARY 
Fifteenth Day 

WOULD not wish 
Any companion in the world but you ; 
Nor can imagination form a shape, 
Beside yourself, to like of. 

SHAKSPEARE. 



Love is never lost. irving. 

Look through mine eyes with thine, True wife, 

Round my true heart thine arms entwine ; 
My other dearer life in life 

Look through my very soul with thine ! 
Untouched by any shade of years 

May those kind eyes forever dwell ! 
They have not shed a many tears, 

Dear eyes, since first I knew them well. 

TENNYSON. 

May that God bless thee, dear, — who wrought 

Two spirits to one equal mind, — 
With blessings beyond hope or thought. 

With blessings which no word can find. 

TENNYSON. 

[47] 



FEBRUARY 
Sixteenth Day 

AND as you journey may you go cheerily 
— a song on your lip and a smile in your 
eye. There is always enough light to show us 
the next step, and beyond that we do not need 
to concern ourselves. The road may lead up hill 
and down dale, and sometimes there may be pit- 
falls to catch the unwary footstep, but if you stum- 
ble get up again and make a new beginning. If 
we follow the footsteps of our Leader, we cannot 
miss the way. 

Do not hurry, 

Do not w^orry, 

As this world you travel through, 

No regretting, 

Fuming, fretting. 

Ever can advantage you. 

Be content with what youVe won, 

What on earth you leave undone. 

There are plenty left to do. 

Let us shine our very brightest, 
Be our corner high or low. 

MRS. R. M. WYLIE. 

[48J 



A 



FEBRUARY 
Seventeenth Day 

H ! how good it feels, — - 
The hand of an old friend ! 

LONGFELLOW. 



There is something sacred and hallowed in a 
friendship that has stood the test of years/ It is 
the next thing to the Divine Love in that, knowing 
all of our weaknesses and failings, it bears with 
them and loves us still. 
Yours be the good fortune to keep old friends ! 

Yes, we must ever be friends, and of all who offer 

you friendship 
Let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest, 

and dearest ! longfellow. 

You've woven roses round my way, 
And gladdened all my being ; 

How much I thank you none can say 
Save only the All-seeing. 

May He who gave this lovely gift, 

This love of lovely doings. 
Be with you wheresoe'er you go. 

In all your life's pursuings ! 

F. S. OSGOOD. 

[49] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Eighteenth Day 

AY your friends in heaven seem as close to 
you as the friends upon earth ! 



How many that went from us before they could 
speak at all might well be our teachers now ! 
How we wish for them ! How we long for their 
presence ! But we would not call them back ; we 
only desire to hold them in such close remem- 
brance that we may follow hard after them, and 
in the way they found victory, find our victory, 
too. We call back none to our arms that have 
gone forth ; we call back none to light our dwell- 
ings, whose going forth was the setting of the sun ; 
but we only remember that they have gone, and 
that we shall surely go after them. beecher. 

May that time come when, hand in hand, 
We walk the fields of that fair promised land 
Where souls hold converse; then shall I repeat 
What I can oxAyfeel in this hfe, sweet. 

ELLEN SOULE CARHART. 

Oh ! that we could with vision clear, 

Believe that those who loved us here 

Still walk with us and hold us dear ! 

M. c. o. 
[so] 



o 



FEBRUARY 
Nineteenth Day 

HO ! my washing's begun — 
I wish and I wish and I wish it were done ! 

NURSERY BALLAD. 



The careful housewife looks to it that there are 
no dark and neglected corners in her home ; no 
cobwebs to sweep away, no mould or mildew to 
stain her household treasures. May we be as care- 
ful of our souls as of our homes, daily sweeping 
away the cobwebs of distrust and doubt, nor allow- 
ing the mildew of worldliness to tarnish our spirits. 

Queen of my tub I merrily sing, 

While the white foam rises high, 
And sturdily wash and rinse and wring, 

And fasten the clothes to dry; 
Then out in the fresh air they swing, 

Under the sunny sky. 

I wish we could wash from our hearts and souls 

The stains of the week away, 
And let water and air by their magic make 

Ourselves as pure as they ; 
Then on the earth there would be indeed 

A glorious washing day. 
[51] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Twentieth Day 

AY you find contentment. 



I'd kind o' like to have a cot 
Fixed on some sunny slope ; a spot 
Five acres more or less, 
With maples, cedars, cherry trees. 
And poplars whitening in the breeze. 

'T would suit my taste, I guess, 
To have the porch with vines o'erhung, 
With bells of pendant woodbine swung, 
In every bell a bee ; 
And round my latticed window spread 
A clump of roses, white and red. 

To solace mine and me, 

I kind o' think I should desire 

To hear around the lawn a choir 

Of wood-birds singing sweet ; 
And in a dell I'd have a brook 
Where I might sit and read my book 



[52] 



FEBRUARY 

Twenty -first Day 

LET thine eyes look right on and thine eyeUds 
look straight before thee. 

Did you ever think how much easier it is instead 
of wishing for a thing, to resolutely say, '^ God 
willing, it shall be mine ! " Idle wishes enfeeble 
the will, where strong and unwavering purpose 
strengthens all the powers of mind and soul. 

Abide not in the land of dreams, 
O man, however fair it seems, 
When drowsy airs thy powers repress 
In languor of sweet nothingness. 

Up ! for the time is short ; and soon 
The morning sun will climb to noon. 
Up ! ere the herds with trampling feet 
Outrunning thine shall spoil the wheat. 

While daytime lingers do thy best, 
Full soon the night will bring its rest ; 
And duty done, may that rest be 
Full of beatitudes to thee. 

WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH. 
[53] 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty -second Day 

T WISH you the patriot's joy this day ! 

Washington's Birthday. 
When God wishes to make a great man, He puts 
the hves of lesser men under tribute. All unself- 
ish, faithful men who have lived their obscure 
lives well have helped to make him. God has let 
none of them be wasted. Phillips brooks. 

There is a land, of every land the pride 
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside ; 

Man, through all ages of revolving time. 
Unchanging man, in every varying clime. 
Deems his own land, of every land the pride, 
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside ; 
So may his home, the spot supremely blest, 
Be dearer, sweeter still than all the rest. 

MONTGOMERY. 

The birthday of Washington ! May the mantle 
of his patriotism fall upon the sons and daughters 
of America. 

[54] 



¥ 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty-third Day 

FORTUNE favors those who strive to work 
out their own fortunes. Every man is the 
architect of his own fortune. Yours be the cour- 
age and the energy which defies chance or fate. 

Let us then be up and doing 
With a heart for any fate, 

Still achieving, still pursuing. 
Learn to labour and to wait. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Do not talk about the lantern that holds the 
lamp ; " but make haste ; uncover the lamp and 
let it shine. 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 

I do not ask for any crown 
But that which all may win ; 

Nor try to conquer any world 
Except the one within ; 

Be Thou my guide until I find. 
Led by a tender hand. 

The happy kingdom in myself. 
And dare to take command. 

LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 
[55] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty-fourth Day 

AY the evil that comes into thy life be 
only the slave of good. 



As the oak grows in the sweeping storms of 
winter, as the flowers sleep safely under the drift- 
ing snows, so may thy soul find a ministry even in 
the darkest, stormiest times of life. 



Evil is only the slave of Good, 

Sorrow the servant of Joy, 
Thine be the soul that can find its food 

From the meanest in God's employ. 

HOLLAND. 

I know not what my life shall hold 

Of love, or light ; 
Only that safe within the fold, 

It shall be right. 

I only seek to find the ways 

His feet have pressed ; 
And feel, through dark or fairer days 

''He knoweth best.'' 
[56] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Tvdenty-fifth Day 

AY you live in Christ and find your life in 
His. 



If we have taken Christ for our Master and 
Saviour, why should we be so eager and unhappy 
over little, temporal things? Oh ! that we may 
not be exalted at the sound of a little praise, 
which we know that we only half deserve, or cast 
down over disappointments which cannot touch 
our real lives. May these be to us only as the 
ripples in the ocean, while beneath is swelling the 
full tide of love and trust. 

He is the true philosopher. 
Who — taught of God and not of men — 

Has learned to walk the inward road 
All careless of the '^how?'' or "when?^* 

This faith, on which the spirit soars, 

This true philosophy be ever yours ! 

As the chords of your spirit grow tense with 
suffering or endurance, may you see that it is 
only the Great Musician who is tuning your soul 
to divine harmonies. 



T 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty -sixth Day 

HEY desire a better country, that is an 
heavenly. Hebrews ii : i6. 



Who would not go 

With buoyant steps to gain that blessed portal 
Which opens to the land we long to know, 
Where shall be satisfied the souls immortal ; 
Where we shall drop the wearying and the woe 

In resting so. 

Oh, wondrous land ! ' 

Fairer than all our spirits' fairest dreaming, 
'' Eye hath not seen " — no heart can understand 
The things prepared, the cloudless radiance 

streaming, 
How longingly we wait our Lord's command. 

His opening hand. 

O most blessed mansion of the city which is 
above ! O day ever joyful, ever serene, and never 
changing into a contrary state ! O that that day 
would appear, and that all these temporal things 
were at an end ! 

THOMAS A KEMPIS. 

[58] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty -seventh Day 

AY you love up, and not down, 
May you love out, and not in. 



Mine be a cot beside the hill ; 

A beehive's hum shall soothe my ear 3 
A willowy brook that turns a mill. 

With many a fall shall linger near. 

The swallow oft beneath my thatch 
Shall twitter from her clay-built nest ; 

Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch, 

And share my meal, a welcome guest. 

Around my ivied porch shall spring 

Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew ; 

And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing 
In russet gown and apron blue. 

The village church among the trees. 

Where first our marriage vows were given. 

With merry peal shall swell the breeze 
And point with taper spire to heaven. 

ROGERS. 

[59] 



M 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty-eighth Day 

AY your faith in better things increase. 



Bring warmth to this coldness, bring Hfe to this 

death ; 
Renew the great miracle ; let us behold 
The stone from the mouth of the sepulchre rolled, 
And hope, like to Lazarus, rise as of old ! 

Let our faith, which in darkness and coldness has 

lain. 
Revive with the warmth and the brightness again. 
And in blooming of flower and budding of tree 
The symbols and types of our destiny see ; 
The life of the springtime, the Hfe of the whole. 
And as sun to the sleeping earth love to the soul ! 

WHITTIER. 

Gladness be with Thee, Helper of the World ! 
I think this is the authentic sign and seal 
Of Godship, that it ever waxes glad, 
And more glad, until gladness blossoms, bursts, 
Into a rage to suffer for mankind, 
And recommence at sorrow. browning. 

[60] 



FEBRUARY 
Twenty-ninth Day 

SWEET right of bashful maiden art. 
LOWELL. 

And yet I wish, I wish with all my heart 
That you may have your wish, in whole, and not 
in part. 

I waud that my swain were no sa bashfu* ! I 
canna' speak wi' my tongue, but I'll let my twa 
e'en speak for me, and then if Jamie luve me he 
canna' but tell me so. 

OLD SCOTCH STORY. 

When love is in the heart as a controlling emotion, 
it does not always need to be told in words. It 
speaks in the eyes, in the smile, in the tone of the 
voice. It says as plainly as words can say, ^' You 
are my joy and inspiration, my comfort and delight. 
I long for your love, and I freely give you mine." 

If bashful swains forget their rights. 
What maid, the wide world over, 

But wishes she might speak her mind, 
And win her own true lover? 
[6i] 




L 



MARCH 
First Day 

ISTEN, you'll hear the first robins of Spring. 
Joy and success to you — that's what they 
sing. 



The icy reign of winter is broken. All nature 
puts forth a more vigorous growth to-day. The 
brooks have broken their long sleep, and are run- 
ning a merry race through the hills and valleys. 
Here and there a bird-note calls to us. There is 
universal rejoicing that the long winter is over. 
Let the gladness of Spring-time enter your heart, 
and as the ice and snow melt away from the hill- 
side, so may all hardness melt from your life and 
the tender buds of happiness push up their shoots 
to greet the sunshine of heaven. And may there 
always be bird-songs in your heart. 

[62] 




the Isprina op hF^e love 

oF a il my l^earh, 
nd hl^e Founl-ain op 

my sonciTl^ou arK 



n\^, ii^*c\s l^^ulk^\ rui\'c^;\v 



I 



MARCH 
Second Day 

WISH you your heart's desire. 



The things for which we wish are the things by 
which our hves may best be judged. For wishes 
shape the character and largely determine the 
life. As wishes become stronger they develop 
into purpose — and purpose grows into deter- 
mination, and determination becomes destiny. 
What can stand between an ardent nature and 
its supreme desire ? The two will find each other 
out in spite of all opposing circumstances. Only 
by training ourselves to noble wishes can we keep 
the character noble. 

Love, purpose, rehgion itself, are but wishes grown 
to virtues. And wishes may grow to be the wings 
which will bear a soul to heaven. 

I wish you your heart's desire 

Though I know not if it be fame, 

I wish it may draw you higher 
And give you a loftier aim ; 

But the light of ambition's fire 

Is naught but a meteor flame. 

[63I 



I 



MARCH 
Third Day 

F your life is a lonely one, may you meet it 
with a brave heart and a sunny face. 



If, from peculiar circumstances, you seem to be 
isolated from your kind, may you still believe that 
there is a purpose and a sweetness in your hfe. 

The Crocus, 
How yellow burns the crocus in the plot ! — 

A little candle-light at a gray wall, 

One dauntless moment snatched from the 
March brawl, 
And like the candle-light to be forgot. 
Stripped of the mellower days, the liberal lot. 

It comes, it goes, an unremembered thing. 

And missing all the Vision of the Spring ; 
Thrust from her door for that the hour is not. 
Oh, we that are of March, smitten through of 
Grief, 

And in the stormy ways blown there and here. 
Unsure of aught save that the time is brief. 

With sweet looks let us take our straitened cheer. 
Though not for us the unfolding of the leaf, 

Or the white tumult of the later year. 

LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE. 
[64] 



M 



MARCH 
Fourth Day 

AY you have angel guards ! 



We do not always realize that we are surrounded 
by clouds of witnesses, and yet the spiritual world 
lies just beyond the veil of flesh. It is a sweet 
belief that those who have gone on before, still 
watch over us and hold up our trembling steps. 

Angels to guard you and angels to guide you 
This is my wish, as you go on your way, 

Legions of shining ones walking beside you, 
Guarding you ever by night-time or day ! 

M. c. o. 

"There is always and everywhere at hand — in 
duty, in suffering, in service for Christ, unseen 
presences, all-encompassing, all-engrossing, all- 
controlling, all-sufficient, and instantly and practi- 
cally available. We have but to venture forward, 
to endure, to trust, to prove God's promises, and 
we shall ^overcome/ And thus may we prove 
it ; that out of our weakness will come forth divine 
strength ; out of our seeming failures grand suc- 
cesses." 

[65] 



M 



MARCH 
Fifth Day 

AY you have bright fancies ! 



I dreamed and I dreamed of a fragrant grove 
Though the snows lay cold on the heather, 

I dreamed that May was abroad in the land 
And that we were roaming together ! 

Open wide thy mind's cage-door 
Fancies bright will cloudward soar ; 
O sweet fancies ! let them loose 
Till they bring thee for thy use 
All delights of Spring-time weather — 
March and May and June together ! 

KEATS. 

Never give way to melancholy. Nothing en- 
croaches more. I fight against it vigorously. 
One great remedy is to take short views of life. 
Are you happy ? Are you likely to remain so till 
this evening, or next month, or next year? Then 
why destroy it ? Then why destroy present happi- 
ness by a distant misery, which may never come 
at all, or you may never live to see it ! For every 
substantial grief has twenty shadows, and most of 
them shadows of your own making. 

[66] SIDNEY SMITH. 



M 



MARCH 
Sixth Day 

AY your nights bring peaceful repose ! 



It is the night-time that brings its conviction of 
happiness or misery. In the silence of midnight 
the heart wakes and makes its demands. Long- 
ings and purposes that are hidden from the light 
of day, assert themselves, and our dreams are rest- 
less or happy as our hearts are empty or satisfied. 
Oh, the long, lonely hours ! It is then conscience 
wakens and asserts itself; it is then that the heart 
broods over its sorrow or the soul over its remorse. 
It is then that we see ourselves as in a mirror, and 
shrink sometimes from the sight. 
May your life be so full of good and so empty 
of evil, that your nights, as well as your days, 
may bring you peace. 

Peace ! Peace ! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer ! 
Descend with broad-winged flight, 
And bring us all, on wings of sleep, 

Sweet dreams throughout the night. 

LONGFELLOW. 

[67] 



M 



MARCH 
Seventh Day 

AY you lean upon the everlasting arm ! 



The bravest spirit is sometimes sorely bewildered. 
A heavy fog settles down upon the mind, and the 
soul seems crushed with a load and confused with 
difficulties. When our judgments lose their clear- 
ness may we remember that God never closes His 
eyes. spurgeon. 

For who that leans on His right arm 
Was ever yet forsaken ? 
What righteous cause can suffer harm 
If He its part hath taken? 

Though wild and loud 

And dark the cloud, 

Behind its folds 

His hands upholds 
The calm sky of to-morrow. 

God give us grace 
Each in his place 
To bear his lot 
And murmur not. 
Endure and wait and labour. luther. 

[68] 



M 



MARCH 
Eighth Day 

AY you, my dear, find Arcady — 
The land of love and melody. 



Where is that enchanted region of our dreams — 
^^ fair Arcady " ? Bring me to it that I may renew 
my youth. All my life have I sought for it and 
sought in vain. ruth owen. 

Who hopes to see fair Arcady? 
No gold can buy your entrance there ; 
But beggared Love may go, all bare, 
No wisdom won with weariness ; 
But Love goes in with Folly^s dress — 
No fame that wit could ever win ; 
But only Love may lead Love in 
To Arcady, to Arcady. 

Far past your Spring's horizon-bound 
O may you find the one who stands 

With foot upon enchanted ground 
To lead you to that mystic land ! 
For yon's the way to Arcady, 

Where all the leaves are merry ! 

[69] 



p 



MARCH 
Ninth Day 

LANT trees now, and may they grow ! 



Whatever work you may begin, if it be for the 
glory of God, and the good of humanity, be sure 
that you are doing His will and carrying out His 
wish. 

The greatest inspiration we can feel in any worthy 
undertaking is that which comes from the knowl- 
edge that it is God's wish that it should succeed. 

It bloweth East, it bloweth West, 
The tender leaves have little rest. 
But any wind that blows is best ; 

The tree God shields 
Strikes deeper root, grows higher still, 
Spreads wider boughs, and for God's will 

Its fruit it yields. bunner. 

Sow love and taste its fruitage pure, 

Sow peace and reap its harvests bright ; 

Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor. 
And find a harvest home of light. 

BONAR. 

[70] 



MARCH 
Tenth Day 

MAY you behold the stars, even while you 
walk upon the grass ! 

The glory of the stars, the glory of the sun ! We 
must not lose either in the other. We must not 
be so full of the hope of heaven that we cannot 
do our work upon earth. W^e must not be so lost 
in the work of earth that we shall not be inspired 
by the hope of heaven. God grant us all the 
contentment and the hope which come to those 
who live in Him ! Phillips brooks. 

Work for some good be it ever so slowly ; 
Cherish some flower be it ever so lowly ! 
Labour ! all labour is noble and holy ! 
So may thy deeds be as prayers to thy God. 

FRANCIS OSGOOD. 

Attaimnent, 
The soul that longs for higher things unknown, 

Shall not forever long unsatisfied ; 
The heart's desire shall of itself alone 

Lift up the soul for that to which it cried. 

MARY A. LEWIS. 
[71] 



M 



MARCH 
Eleventh Day 

AY you draw near to God ! 



This is the beginning of our wonder that as we 
draw nearer to God, He draws near to us; stoops 
to interpret to us His nature ; that He concerns 
Himself in the poorest and the least of things. 
And we stand, not because we were made to stand 
alone, but because we were made to stand in Him. 
This is His supreme wish — that by the leading 
of Almighty love we may draw ever nearer to the 
divine presence. ' beecher. 

Nearer my God to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee, 
E'en though it be a cross 

That raiseth me : 
Still all my prayer shall be 
Nearer my God to Thee, 

Nearer to Thee ! 

Our hearts are like the great world without : — 
full of confusion and restlessness ; but as we draw 
nearer and nearer to God we have His whisper, 
" Peace be unto you." 

[72] 



MARCH 
Twelfth Day 

HERE'S to your good health ! Health of 
body and of soul ! with growing health 
there comes a growing hopefulness and courage 
and the capacity for work. Health ? Content ? 
Delight? Hope? Enthusiasm? These are the 
true conditions of a healthy life. Now is the 
time to rid ourselves of the old gnarled roots 
of selfishness and discontent that cumber the 
heart's soil. Dig them out ! Plant the seeds of 
purity and love and wait for the fragrance of their 
blossoming. 

Were't the last drop in the well 

As I gasped upon the brink, 
Ere my fainting spirit fell 

'Tis to thee that I would drink. 

With that water as this wine 

The libation I would pour 
Would be ^' Peace to thee and thine, 

And a health to thee, Tom Moore." 

BYRON. 

He who is lord of his soul and body is lord of the 
universe. ^ 



MARCH 
Thirteenth Day 

A FTER long labour I wish you good rest ! 

Duty well performed is the one thing on earth 
that can earn repose. May you give to every 
task the sublimest motive you know. Every such 
consecration, made in the darkness, is reaching 
towards the Hght, and is winning rest for your 
soul. May your consecration be entire. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

Think not in sleep to fold thine hands, 
Forgetful of thy Lord's commands j 
From duty's claims no life is free — 
Behold, to-day hath need of thee. 

Thrust in thy sickle, nor delay 
The work that calls for thee to-day ; 
To-morrow, if it comes, will bear 
Its own demands of toil and care. 

The present hour allow thy task 
For present strength and patience ask. 
And may His love send sure supplies 
To meet thy needs as they arise. 

WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH. 
[74] 



A 



MARCH 
Fourteenth Day 

WISHBONE wish — 



" I have won the larger end of the bone. 

And the triumph with joy I greet, 
Already a wish in my heart has grown, 

Like a flower, pure and sweet. 

"If I tell you, dearest, it won't come true : 
And if it comes true, you see. 

It will be as lovely, dear heart, for you 
As it ever can be for me." 

She looked in his eyes with a puzzled air. 

As she idly toyed with a rose 
That dreamily lay on her bosom fair 

In a happy and charmed repose. 

And he sang to himself as he said farewell 
To the thrill of her hand's warm press ; 

O this is the reason I would not tell ; 
I wished for her answer — " Yes ! " 



R. K. MUNKITTRICK. 



[75] 



MARCH 
Fifteenth Day 

OTHAT it were with me 
As with the flower ; 
Blooming on its own tree 
For butterfly and bee 
In summer morns : 

That I might bloom mine hour 
A rose in spite of thorns. 

O that my work were done 

As birds that soar 
Rejoicing in the sun : 
That when my time is run 
And daylight too, 

I so may rest once more 
Cool with refreshing dew. 

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 



'^Just one hour of freedom from care — just one 
day of irresponsible living — just one year of rest," 
we sometimes sigh ; but the heart must have its 
time of blossoming and fruitage, before it can 
have its time of rest. 



G 



MARCH 
Sixteenth Day 

OLDEN days, still dawn on thee ! 



The rising of a cherished hope is like the rising 
of the sun. The whole hfe is tinged with its light, 
even as the whole sky is flooded with sunrise glory. 
Even into old age may hopes dawn upon your hori- 
zon and shed their rosy light over all your sky ! 

Come, dear, drop your mending, and sit by my 
side, 
Let us build us a castle, my sweet one, in 
"Spain"; — ' 
And this be our wish that whatever betide. 
We'll still be together in sunshine or rain. 

MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 

Love, I wish no voice to chide us 

None to caution or divide : 
Love alone to guard and guide us. 

Drifting with the tide. 

Drifting, drifting — whither drifting. 

Ah, Carissima, with thee ! 
To the radiant skies uplifting. 

Or a storm-swept sea? 

[jy] GARNET WALCH. 



D 



MARCH 
Seventeenth Day 

AY unto day uttereth speech." May you 
hear aright ! 



Oh to interpret the voice of nature ! To hear the 
winds and waters repeating that which, being inter- 
preted, is but the voice of our own longing for 
immortahty ! To hear, in the beat of waves upon 
the sand, the solemn echo from the shoreless waves 
of eternity ; to hear, even yet, the " morning stars 
singing together " ; to hear the anthem of the pine- 
trees, and the chanting of the water-falls, and as 
the undertone of them all, the voice of the great 
Creator speaking from the soul of the Infinite, to 
the soul of the finite. 



Whoever hears the coarsest sound, 
While Hstening for the finest. 

Shall hear the noisy world go round 
To music the divinest. 

THEODORE TILTON. 



[78] 



MARCH 
Eighteenth Day 

i^^HRIST be your all in all ! 

For thy weariest day 
May Christ be thy stay ! 
For the darkest night 
May Christ be thy light ! 
For the weakest hour 
May Christ be thy power ! 
For each moment's fall 
May Christ be thy all ! 

Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the 
hope, firm unto the end. Hebrews 3 : 6. 

Patiently wait, for His steps will not tariry. 
Patiently listen — He cometh apace ; 

"Only a little time," thou who art weary 

Then shalt behold Him and gaze on His face. 

All thou hast longed for He brings at His coming, 

Down the dim ages thy gift cometh sure. 
See that thy hands are made fit to receive it, 
See that thy heart and thy spirit are pure. 

M. c. o. 
[79] 



MARCH 
Nineteenth Day 

/^"^ OD speed you ! 

This is my confidence in you, that wherever you 
may be, whatever you may be doing, I know that 
I can say "God speed you ! " This is the heart's 
natural utterance when the journey lies across 
smiling landscapes ; — but how much more we 
need a " God speed " when each successive step 
must be taken in the dark. Then, if ever, it must 
be God who speeds us, for there are shadows 
where no man's help can reach. 

Oh, love of my life, say once more, God speed. 
Ere I go from thy presence to-day. 

Thy blessing will cheer me and solace my need 
Though I wander in paths far away. 

Show me the way that leads to the true life, 
I do not care what tempests may assail me ; 

I shall be given courage for the strife ; 

I know my strength will not desert or fail me ; 

I know that I shall conquer in the fray, — 
Show me the way. 

ELLA WHEELER. 
[80] 



M 



MARCH 
Twentieth Day 

AY you have strength for the day ! 



As is thy day, may thy strength be too. 

Angels ! sing on, your faithful watches keeping, 
Sing us sweet fragments of the song above ; 

While we toil on and soothe ourselves with weep- 
ing, 
Till Hfe's long night shall break in endless love. 

FABER. 

The day dies Hke a dream, 

A prophecy divine, 
Dear Master, through us perfectly 

Shape Thou Thy white design. 
Nor let one life be left a blot 

On this fair world of Thine. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that 
have no might he increaseth strength. 

ISAIAH 40: 29. 

[81] 



M 



MARCH 
Twenty-first Day 

AY you have noble thoughts ! 



Cherish the thoughts that are lofty and ennobling. 
They will determine the character and purpose of 
your life. The value of a thought cannot be told. 
It broadens the horizon, it lifts the heart and in- 
spires the soul to worthy and vital aims. As a man 
thinks, so is he ; as a man wills, he may become, 
by cultivating a special habit of thought. 

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought. 
Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 
Our hearts in glad surprise 



To higher levels rise. 



LONGFELLOW. 



Upward aspire, and may the wings that lift thy soul, 
Ne'er cease in their unswerving flight till thou hast 

reached thy goal ! 
While noble thoughts that brood within thy heart 
Warm and revive thy nature's better part. 

May the words of my mouth and the meditations 
of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, 
my strength, and my redeemer, psalm 19 : 14. 
[82] 



MARCH 
Twenty -second Day 

What Shall I Wish Thee, Dear? 

WHAT shall I wish thee, Dear? 
Many a joyous year, 
Pleasure bestowing ; 
Life's sunshine warm and bright 
Steeping thy path in light 
Golden and glowing. 

What shall I wish thee, Dear? 
Many a happy year 

Leading thee onward; 
Bright blossoms at thy feet, 
Hope breathing whispers sweet, 

As thou goest onward. 

What shall I wish thee, Dear? 
Many a peaceful year — 

From God the Giver — 
Then a glad welcome home. 
Where fadeless flowers shall bloom 

Round thee forever. 



[83] 



M 



MARCH 
Twenty-third Day 

AY you talk with Jesus ! 



Lord, let me talk with Thee of all I do, 

All that I care for, all I wish for, too. 

Lord, let me prove Thy sympathy, Thy power, 

Thy loving oversight from hour to hour ! 

When I need counsel let me ask of Thee : 

Whatever my perplexity may be. 

It cannot be too trivial to bring 

To One who marks the sparrow's drooping wing ; 

Nor too terrestrial, since Thou hast said 

The very hairs are numbered on our head. 

Are those I love the cause of anxious care? 

Thou canst unbind the burdens they may bear. 

Before the mysteries of Thy word or will 

Thy voice can gently bid my heart be still, 

Since all that is now hard to understand 

Shall be unravelled in yon heavenly land ; 

Do weakness, weariness, disease, invade 

This earthly house, which Thou thyself hast made ? 

Thou only. Lord, canst touch the hidden spring 

Of mischief, and attune the jarring string. 

LONDON WITNESS. 

[84] 



M 



MARCH 
Twenty-fourth Day 

Y greetings reach you, wherever this day 
you may be ! 



All wishes are embraced in the thought of love, 
so we know that if we possess the love of our 
friends we may be always certain of their good 
wishes. And yet the assurance of these wishes 
always brings a warmth and tenderness into our 
hearts. 

Tidings I bring, and lucky joys and golden wishes 1 

SHAKSPEARE. 

And look, and look yet once again, 

Within her eyes of blue 
And see how every thought of mine 

To thee is ever true. 

Yes, Sweet, the pictured face is thine 

But yet, the painter's art 
Is all too poor to show the love 

That speaks from heart to heart. 

M. c. o. 

[85] 



MARCH 
Twenty-fifth Day 

DOWN on the wings of the morning light 
Something is borne to the waiting earth, 
Something that's new, and strange, and bright. 
Waking the world to a newer birth. 

Over the meadows the smishine lies — 
Tenderly brooding from zone to zone, 

Carols are lifted to arching skies. 

Chimes from the steeples are swung and blown. 

Out on the mountains the wild flower springs. 
Far in the river the mist wreaths curl, 

High up above us, Hke great white wings. 

The clouds sweep forth from their gates of pearl. 

Ah, what is it — this glow in the air — 
Gilding the day tho' the skies were dim? 

What is it thrills through the soul's deep prayer. 
This sense in the heart of a whispered hymn ? 

Christ is arisen ! Oh, marvellous word 
Speaking forever, thro' sounds and signs. 

Lift thou each soul, like a soaring bird. 

Up where the light of the Risen One shines ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[86] 



MARCH 
Twenty-sixth Day 

I WOULD not ask for thee a fadeless summer — 
When all is bright ; 
Nor that eternal day surround thee, 

Without a night ; 
For if our summer lasted all the year, 
No vernal Spring in beauty would appear. 

I would not ask for thee a Hfe of pleasure — 

Without a care ; 
Nor that thy path be strewn with roses, 

Through meadows fair ; 
For if our days were only happy days. 
And if our ways were only pleasant ways, 
Our lives in dull monotony would run — 
Without the peace that comes when toil is done. 

But I would wish for thee a Heavenly measure 

Of shade and shine ; 
Enough to make thee grasp the closer 

The Hand divine, 
Enough to bend thee to His sovereign will — 
Whate'er His mandate, be it good or ill. 

IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. 
[87] 



H 



MARCH 
Twenty -seventh Day 

EAVEN grants us friends to make life toler- 
able. Yours be many and true ! 

I wish that friends were always true, 

And motives always pure ; 
I wish the good were not so few, 

I wish the bad were fewer ; 
I wish that parsons ne'er forgot 

To heed their pious teaching ; 
I wish that practising was not 

So different from preaching ! 

JOHN G. SAXE. 



If a man wishes friends, let him show himself 
friendly. 

May your spirit dwell upon the sunny hilltops of 
serenity, where the shadows cast by ill-temper and 
evil spirits can never reach. We sometimes lose 
our most cherished friends by giving way to moods 
in their presence, and so disenchanting them. 
The very intimacy of our association unloosed the 
restraint which every self-respecting nature should 
impose upon itself. 

[88] 



A 



MARCH 
Twenty -eighth Day 

HAPPY life, — a peaceful death, a glorious 
immortality. 



A Ring Wish, 

You'd have me make a wish, you say, 

When I replace this golden band 

Upon your soft and tender hand. 

A wish — well, dear, what shall it be ? 

Wealth, fame, or immortahty? 

Yes, all of these — nay, more. I'd wish 

Your path through hfe, wherever it tends, 

May throng with true and steadfast friends ; 

Friends who will strew its path with flowers^ 

And cheer you in its trying hours. 

And when your sojourn here is o'er 

And time for you shall be no more, 

When you have reached " that final bourne 

From whence no travellers return," 

May happy spirits twine for thee 

A wreath of immortality. 

Bright as the everlasting day, 

" A crown which fadeth not away." 

[89] 



MARCH 
Twenty-ninth Day 

If I were a GirL 

^^ TF I were a girl, a true-hearted girl, 
X Just budding to fair womanhood, 
There's many a thing I would not do. 

And numberless more that I would. 
I never would frown, with my mouth drawn down, 

For the creases will come there and stay ; 
But sing like a lark, should the day be dark — 

With a glow in my heart alway ! '* 

'' If I were a girl, a fond, loving girl. 

With father overburdened with care, 
I would walk at his side, with sweet tender pride. 

With ever a kiss and a prayer. 
Not a secret I'd keep that could lead to deceit ; 

Not a thought I should blush to share ; 
Not a friend my parents would e'er disapprove " — 

I would trust such a girl anywhere ! 

Oh, the blessings that a daughter can bring into a 
household if she only wishes to ! The commun- 
ion of her mother, the comfort of her father, the 
pride of her brothers and sisters, the joy of the 
whole household ! martha Washington. 

[90] 



T 



MARCH 
Thirtieth Day 

HINE be the wisdom of the ages ! 

Down the years, the solemn ages, 
Floats the wisdom of the sages : 
Naught that heritage can sever 
From thy grasp — 'tis thine forever, 
Hold it, scan it, learn it well — 
May its richness with you dwell ! 
• 
Then let us fill 
This interval, this pause of time, 
With all the virtue we can crowd into it ! 

ADDISON. 

What the mind guesses. 

Day after day, 
Through dim recesses 

Groping its way. 
What the moon answers 

In silver speech. 
What of joy reaches thee, 
What thy pain teaches thee 

That do thou teach. 

DANSKE DANDRIDGE. 

[90 



M 



MARCH 
Thirty-first Day 

AY you have sweet memories and sunny 
prospects. 



How closely associated are prospect and retro- 
spect. It is through happy memories that we 
find ourselves wishing for the renewal of old 
friendships and old associations. Just as the per- 
fume from a rose jar arouses through its aromatic 
odor thoughts of roses in a garden yet to be, so 
does a fragrant memory awaken thoughts of a 
renewed love and a sweeter joy, in life's June- 
times yet to be. The two thoughts blend so 
closely that no one can tell where the one ends 
and the other begins. 

A bird sang sweet and strong 
In the top of the highest tree : 

He said, '' I pour out my heart in song 
For the summer that soon shall be ! " 

But deep in the shady wood, 

Another bird sang, " I pour 
My heart on the solemn soUtude, 

For the springs that return no more." 

GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 
[92] 




H^'^e l-lpal- 3oel-l7 porl-l7 and weepeH^, 
^ ■•i/'^V seed o f 3 ra ce i n s o r row b ri ngi n 3 , 

'^' Laden wi^t7 1713 sl7eaves of glory, 

doub+less shall rel-urn wihl^ singing. 





8 


^^Vm^j 1 *' ^ wz'sk you all the joy thai you can 
j^^^j^ 1 wish" — Shakspeare. 


^H 



APRIL 
First Day 

LET every passing season bring 
A garland fresh and new, 
Let blue-eyed violets, clustering 
About your feet, proclaim the Spring, 
And wreaths of hawthorn softly fling 
Their petals over you. 

How many close-folded buds are awaiting their 
blooming time ! April is the month of promises. 
Every day brings with it a new surprise and a 
fresh delight. The year has not yet gained the 
serene poise of Spring-time ; often April looks 
back with longing for her boisterous play-fellow 
March, and a sudden gust of tears chases the 
smiles from her face. But the tears will grow 
more rare and the smiles more frequent. So may 
it be with you as life opens out into its spring- 
time. [93] 



APRIL 
Second Day 

BEATING winds or shining sun, 
Pouring rain or gentle dew, 
May the blossom of thy life 
Still unfold and grow in you. 

Thou art so like a flower, 

So pure and fair and kind, 
I gaze on thee, and sorrow 

Then in my heart I find. 
It seems as I must lay then 

My hand upon thy brow. 
While praying God will keep thee 

As pure and fair as now. 

TRANSLATED FROM HEINE. 

Our wants, our wishes, — yea our hopes and fears, 

Lie, folded like the apple blooms ; 
With modesty flushing 
Like them are they blushing 

And white in their purity 
Are waiting futurity ; 
Thus in their silken cells they lie 

Our hearts' own cherished apple blooms 
That thrive and grow and ripen with the years. 
[94] 



APRIL 
Third Day 

TZ' EEP your heart in tune. 

Ah, fain would I sing back to those 
Who sing to me, with note as clear 

As flutters from the lark that goes 
In quest of heaven's open ear. 

But leaving now those singing ones 
I waft them only this refrain : — 

Sing on ! till under smiling suns 
No song of peace is born of pain. 

Sing on ! till some glad day of days 

Eternal glories on you shine, 
And every plaint be turned to praise 

In song Immortal as Divine ! 

A. A. HOPKINS. 

The world is out of tune, and our hearts are out 
of tune, and the more our souls vibrate to the 
music of heaven, the more they must feel the dis- 
cords of earth. The poet, if he be a true singer, 
is a messenger between the two worlds — he it is 
who may bring harmony from discord — praise 
from plaint. anonymous. 

[95] 



L 



APRIL 
Fourth Day 

OOK up ! the skies are blue — 
Tis God's bright wish for you ! 



Drop the old remnants of a past life into the ever- 
fruitful soil and all the possibilities of a new life 
open. The Spring-time finds last Summer's roots 
and quickens them to life again. 
May the seeds of good spring up in thy " soul's 
still garden-place." Phillips brooks. 

April, cold with dropping rain, 
Bring the lilacs back again. 

Whistle of returning buds 

Trumpet lowing of the herds ! 

Newer life and fuller love. 

Bring it, April, from above. 

I wish it were summer 

With roses a-bloom — 

Heigh-ho ! Heigh-ho ! Heigh-hey ! — 

That lihes would open 

Their cups of perfume. 

And drink me a health to-day. 

[96] 



APRIL 
Fifth Day 

LONG may Heaven's protecting arm, 
Shield thee, friend of friends, from harm. 

The fond heart is ever craving blessings for the 
object of its devotion. But when it can say, 
" Father, my wish is but as a drop in the infinite 
ocean of Thy love," it has learned to trust. 

Leave the young hearts to nature and to God. 

Leave the young tendrils where they will to 
twine ; 
Where violets blossom, and white snowdrops nod, 

Fall April dews,, where April's sunhghts shine ; 
Gathered the ripened corn, if yet some ears 

Are left for faltering hand and patient care ; 
But for the darlings of decaying years. 

Leave them alone in all save love and prayer. 

ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 

Dear tired heart by ills oppressed 
Fly to the shelter of God's breast. 
What can hurt thee or alarm 
Within the circle of His arm? 
Never mind earth's stormy weather, 
God and His own are close together. 

MARY F. BIGELOW. 
[97] 



E 



APRIL' 
Sixth Day 

TERNAL Spring be in your heart ! 



O if I could but weave for you, 

A wish in flowers of Spring-time blue, 

These are the words which I would say — 
" I wish you joy this April day ! " 



In Winter days I long for Spring, 

In Summer for the Fall ; 
In April I'd be summering 

If I'd my way at all. 

And in the gorgeous Autumn-time 

I deem that season blest 
When 'neath the snow and frosty rime 

Fair Nature lies at rest. 

*Tis thus I'm always happy, for 

My spirit's upward led 
By thoughts of those good things in store 

For me in days ahead. 

JOHN KENDRICK BANGS. 
[98] 



APRIL 
Seventh Day 

" A LOHA." — (Love to you.) 

Like the stars which shine over the sea 

Far above you, 
So your presence sheds hght upon me, 

For I love you. 
And I wish that our Hves might be drawn 

Ever nearer, 
Through all changes of twilight and dawn, 

Always dearer. 

EMILY BARNARD. 

The heart longs for love. To love satisfies one 
half of our nature ; to be loved satisfies the other 
half. But no human love can fully satisfy us, 
because man is so constituted that nothing finite 
can suffice him ; his heart ever springs beyond 
the universe in search of an ideal of beauty, a 
perfect object of love and adoration ; and no 
human love for us can make us perfectly happy, 
for no human heart is fully attuned to ours — no 
human heart can wholly understand or sympathize 
with our own. A. a. hodge. 

[99] 



V 



APRIL 
Eigbtb Day 

ORD ! we would put aside 

The gauds and baubles of this 
mortal life — 
Weak self-conceit, the fooHsh tools of strife, 
The tawdry garb of pride — 
And pray, in Christ's dear name, 
Thy grace to deck us in the robes of light ; 
That at His coming we may see aright. 
And fear no sudden shame. 

Let the morn 
Shine on thee in thy solitary walk ; 
And let the misty mountain winds be free 
To blow against thee ; and, in after years. 
When these wild ecstasies shall be matured 
Into a sober pleasure, when the mind 
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms ; 
Thy memory be as a dweUing-place 
For all sweet sounds and harmonies : oh ! then, 
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief. 
Shall be thy portion, with what healing thoughts 
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me. 
And these my exhortations. 

WORDSWORTH. 

[lOO] 



APRIL • 
Ninth Day 

A/OURS be noble thoughts ! 

Be noble ! and the nobleness that lies 
In other men sleeping, but never dead, 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own. 

LOWELL. 

Thoughts are living things. A noble thought em- 
bodied and embraced in fit words walks the earth 
majestically, a living being. Keep in step with 
noble thoughts. Whipple. 

The essence of true nobility is neglect of self. Let 
the thought of self pass in and the beauty of a 
great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled 
flower. 
May you possess the grace of unselfishness. 

FROUDE. 

A lesson which I well may heed, 
A word of fitness to my need. 

Search thine own heart. What paineth thee 
In others, in thyself may be ; 
All dust is frail, all flesh is weak ; 
Be thou the man that thou dost seek. 

[loi] WHITTIER. 



M 



. APRIL 
Tenth Day 

Y love to you this day ! 



Could I with ink the ocean fill, 

Were all the earth of parchment made, 
Were every single stick a quill, 

And every man a scribe by trade, 
I'd write my love for you, dear, 

And drain the ocean dry. 
Nor would the scroll contain the whole 

Though stretched from sky to sky. 

True love is immeasurable. So may the depths 
of your heart-life be ! 

O Maid ! 
I pray thee light 
Both noon and night ; 
The envious dawn 
Thou lookest on 
Is too soon gone ; 

Then stay 

One day, 

I pray. 

MARGARET DELAND. 
[102] 



APRIL 
Eleventh Day 

Cleopatra. 

COULD they but see me as I was 
In Egypt's land — 
My queenly state, my ebon guards, 

My armies grand. 
The robes which draped my perfect form 

With matchless grace. 
The gems which flashed on all my limbs — 
And, ah, my face ! 

sculptor, give me back my life, 
To reign once more. 

To lead my retinue along 

Nile's tawny shore. 
To find again my Anthony, 

To feel his arms, 
To rest secure within their fold 

From earth's alarms. 

Oh, change me from this icy thing 
To living queen 1 

1 long to show to all the world 

What I have been. 

RAMSAY MORRIS. 

[103] 



T 



APRIL 
Twelfth Day 

IS as you think and wish. 



J. G. HOLLAND. 



Great truths are portions of the soul of man : 

Great souls are portions of eternity ; 
Each drop of blood that e'er through true heart ran 

With lofty message, ran for thou and me ; 
For God's wish, since the starry song began, 

Hath been, and still forever more must be, 
That every deed which shall outlast Time's span 

Must goad the soul to be erect and free. 

Be great in act as you have been in thought, so 
may inferior eyes grow great by your example. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

Learn thou this. Wealth is a weak anchor, and 
glory cannot support a man. Virtue alone is firm 
and cannot be shaken by a tempest. Yours be 
all the virtues ! Pythagoras. 

Why thus longing, thus forever sighing 
For the far-off, unattained and dim. 

While the beautiful all round thee lying 
Offers up its low, perpetual hymn ? 

HARRIET W. SEWALL. 
[104] 



APRIL 
Thirteenth Day 

BE absolutely and faithfully what you are, be 
humbly what you aspire to be. Be sure you 
give men the best of your wares, though they 
be poor enough, and the gods will help you to 
lay up a better store for the future. thoreau. 

All faintly through my soul to-day, 
As from a bell that far away 
Is tinkled by some frolic fay, 

Floateth a lovely chiming. 
Thou magic bell, to many a fell 
And many a winter-saddened dell 
Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell 

Too passionate sweet for rhyming. 

Chime out, thou little song of Spring, 
Float in the blue skies ravishing. 
Thy song of life a joy doth bring 

That's sweet, albeit fleeting. 
Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home : 
And when thou to a rose shalt come 
That hath begun to show her bloom, 

Say, I send her greeting. 

TR. FROM HERDER 
BY SIDNEY LANIER. 
[105] 



APRIL 
Fourteenth Day 

GIVE me assurances of your affection now, 
while I am lonely and in need of them. 

WASHINGTON. 

Keep your love for your friends in unsealed vials. 
Let its incense refresh their weary way, and its 
beauty delight their hearts. 

If I should die to-night. 
Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me. 
Recalling other days remorsefully ; 
The eyes that chill me with averted glance. 
Would look upon me as of yore, perchance, 
And soften in the old familiar way, 
For who would war with dumb unconscious clay ? 
So I might rest, of all forgiven to-night. 
O friends ! I pray to-night 
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow ; 
The way is lonely, let me feel them now ; 
Think gently of me ; I am travel-worn ; 
My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn ; 
Forgive ! O hearts estranged, forgive I plead ! 
When dreamless rest is mine I shall not need 
The tenderness for which I long to-night. 

[106] 



M 



APRIL 
Fifteenth Day 

AY you see the sun through the clouds. 



Is it raining, little flower? 

Be glad of rain ! 
Too much sun would wither thee ; 

'Twill shine again. 
The sky is very black, 'tis true ; 
But just behind it shines the blue. 

Art thou weary, tender heart ? 

Be glad of pain ! 
In sorrow sweetest things will grow, 

As flowers in rain. 
God watches ; and thou wilt have sun, 
When clouds their perfect work have done. 

Rainy days must come into every life. It is God's 
way of softening our heart's soil so that it may be 
fit for the seeds He deeps with it. The little 
white flower of patience can only grow from a 
moist soil, and all the sweetest heart growths are 
refreshed by showers. 

Wells dry up while the sky is sunny and blue. 

INIRS. BROWNING. 

[107] 



M 



APRIL 
Sixteenth Day 

AY your life be beautiful, and at the end - 
a triumph ! 



May the blessing of God be upon thee ; 
May the Sun of Glory shine round thy head ; 
May the gates of plenty, honor, and 

Happiness be open to thee. 
May no sorrow distress thy days ; 
May no grief disturb thy nights ; 
May the pillow of peace kiss thy cheek. 
And the pleasure of reaHzation attend 

Thy beautiful dreams. 
And when length of days makes thee 
Tired of earthly joys, and the curtain of 
Death gently closes round thy last sleep 

Of human existence. 
May the angel of God attend thy bed 
And take care that the expiring lamp of life 
Shall not receive one rude blast to hasten 

Its extinction. 



[io8] 



APRIL 
Seventeenth Day 

Wishing and Having. 

IF to wish and to have were one, my dear, 
You would be sitting now 
With not a care in your tender heart — 

Nor a wrinkle upon your brow. 
The clock of time would go back with you, 

All the years you have been my wife. 
Till its golden hands had pointed out 
The happiest hour of your life. 

Perhaps it will all come right at last, 

It may be when all is done 
We shall be together in some good world 

Where to wish and to have are one. 

R. H. STODDARD. 

Oh, mark the sea of tenderness. 
And on its beach sit down for life, 
And feel forever, as at first. 
Its gentle breezes fan the soul ! 
Thine be the balmy airs that blow, 
Refreshing all thy soul with love. 

[109] 



APRIL 
Eighteenth Day 

MAY hope link you to the future while mem- 
ory binds you to the past ! 

Keep to Youth and to Hope as your alhes — 

The sages plead both as a sin, — 
But still may they lead you to victory 

And help you life's battle to win. 

So, courage ! courage ! 'tis not so far 
From a plodded path to a shining star. 

MARY A. LATHBURY. 

When first thy eyes unveil, give thy soul leave 
To do the like ; our bodies but forerun 

The spirit's duty ; true hearts spread and heave 
Unto their God, as flowers do to the sun. 

H. VAUGHAN. 

Let me find in Thy employ 
Peace that dearer is than joy; 
Out of self to love be led. 
And to Heaven acclimated. 
Until all things sweet and good 
Seem my natural habitude. 

WHITTIER. 
[no] 



APRIL 
Nineteenth Day 

T^AIR skies and favoring winds. 

^^ Bon Voyage / " 

" Bon Voyage ! " 'Tis the wish upon the lip, 

The prayer within the heart, 
When, snowy wings outspread, the gallant ship 

Makes ready to depart. 

" Bon Voyage ! " Tis a last God-speed to those 

Who face the mighty main, 
" Bon Voyage ! ^' wheresoever the good craft goes. 

Until we meet again ! 

" Bon Voyage ! " Then to you, my friend, this day, 

Afloat upon life's sea. 
In sunny hours, and when the wild winds play. 

Wherever you may be ! 

" Bon Voyage ! " O'er the busy sea of life, 

Fair skies and favoring wind, 
And may your heart in spite of storm and strife 

Its wished-for haven find ! 

[Ill] 



M 



APRIL 
Twentieth Day 

AY all thy windows be skylights ! 



Keep thy spirit pure from worldly taint by the 
repellent strength of virtue ; think ever on noble 
thoughts and deeds, and practise precepts which 
are proven wise. 
Walk boldly and wisely in the light thou hast. 

Get leave to work; 
In this world 'tis the best you get at all ; 
For God in cursing, gives us better gifts 
Than man in benediction. God says *^ Sweat 
For foreheads " ; men say '^ Crowns," and so we 

are crowned — 
Ay, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel 
Which snaps with a secret spring. Get work, 

get work ; 
Be sure His better than what you work to get. 

MRS. BROWNING. 

Leave me to the humming 

Of my little hive, 
Glad to earn a living. 

Glad to be aHve. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

[112] 



APRIL 
Twenty-first Day 

ALL along the aisles of the forest, all through 
dim recesses and secluded nooks, dainty 
April is dropping violets from her robe, and 
weaving rainbows from her smiles and tears to set 
in the sky. The Spring-time thrill is in the air, 
the Spring-time joy is in our hearts. Let's drink 
in all the freshness of this April-tide ! 

Oh, tell it again, the sweet old story. 

The oft-told story of dawning Spring, 
When Cometh the first real hint of glory — 

The first glad day when the year takes wing ; 
The pulse of Nature is quicker thrilling. 

The lark is singing, the grasses sprout. 
And the maple- trees their sweets are spilhng, 

And eager bees from the hives fly out ; 
The wayside brook that was frozen over 

Begins its longings to wander again, 
And Hope is ever a gay young rover. 

Who flits about in the hearts of men — 
There's a fresh green leaf, springing now and then, 
Where she drops her seed in the hearts of men. 

IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. 

[113] 



APRIL 

Twenty -second Day 

^VERY day is the pearl of days, 
Clasp each one to thy heart ! 

If our rehgion is really a thing of the heart ; if 
we move about day by day as seeing One invisi- 
ble ; if the love of Christ is really warming the 
springs of our life ; then, however feebly this is 
shown in matter or manner, it will surely make 
others wish to have the same religion. 
And wishes sometimes shape our lives. 

Walk boldly and wisely in the light thou hast ; 
There is a hand above will help thee on. 

BAILEY. 

Life is fleeting as a shade ; 

Make your mark ; 
Marks of some kind must be made ; 

Make your mark ; 
Make it while the arm is strong, 

In the golden hours of youth, 
Never, never make it wrong ; 
Make it with the stamp of truth ; 

Make your mark. david baker. 

[114] 



Y 



APRIL 
Twenty-third Day 

OU have ^y fondest wishes ! 



Fast, so fast for you he's flying, — 

One small bird I know, 
Gathering from the Spring-time woodland 

Wishes, where they grow. 

This whole green earth of Spring is God's em- 
bodied wish for man. 

The glad green earth holds her sparkling cup ; — 
May thine be a brimmimg measure, 

Of joy and health, mayhap of wealth 
And every cherished treasure ! 

The resurrection time of earth is always a time of 
eager expectation. We know that the germs will 
quicken, and the plants will clothe themselves 
with beauty, and our whole spiritual comprehen- 
sion corresponds to this symbol of its own death- 
less nature. May glad hopes of immortahty be 
yours this day ! 

I should prefer the delights of a garden to the 
dominion of a world. john adams. 

[115] 



M 



APRIL 
Twenty-fourth Day 

AY yours be the beauty of unselfishness. 



Love thyself last ; cherish those hearts that hate 

thee ; 
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not. 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's and truth's. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

There is no need of jostHng each other in the 
highway of hfe. The way is rough enough and 
steep enough, even with all the forbearance that 
kindly natures know how to exercise. Let us 
help each other as we go on our way. 

If you see your comrade stumble, help him up. 
If your neighbor's load is too heavy, give him a lift. 
If some one is discouraged, give him a cheery word. 

Let us help each other as we go our way, 
Life has trials many, live as best we may. 
But what's hard for one may be easy for two. 
So then, stand by me, and I will stand by you. 

[ii6] 



APRIL 

' Twenty-fifth Day 

I WISH you eyes of quickest sight to see 
The beauty that lies hid in common things ; 
I wish you ears and thrilling heart to feel 

The tuneful skylark as he sings ; 
No need to seek for foreign wonders rare, 

The world that's all around holds better thingSo 

EMILY BARNARD. 

My wish in a golden fairy boat 
I launch far over the sea to float, 
And, balancing with the wave's soft motion, 
It drifteth out upon bright fancy's ocean. 
Perchance thou wilt rescue the lovely child 
And lull him to sleep on thy bosom mild. 
But 'tis Cupid, hiding his stinging dart 
Till he buries it deep in some fond heart. 

EMILY BARNARD. 

When your twilight dreams are weaving 

Fancies free. 
May thy fond affection cleaving 

Twine round me, — 
Thus my wish of wishes 

True shall be. 

[117] 



APRIL 
Twenty-sixth Day 

SWEET is Spring, and sweet the morning, my 
beloved, my beloved, 
Now for us doth morning wait upon the Earth's 

increase, 
And my prayer goes up '' Oh, give us, crowned in 
youth with marriage glory. 

Give for all our life's dear story 
Give us love and give us peace." 

JEAN INGELOW. 



God has made this world very fair. He fashioned 
it in beauty when there was no eye to behold it 
but His own. Every hill and dale and tree and 
landscape is now a delicately tinted picture. 
Every cloud and mist-wreath and vapor-veil of 
April is a shadowy hint of fuller glories yet to 
come. Let us enjoy every day of the Springtide 
as it unfolds. 



Listen, Sweet, how bees are humming. 
Beating wings are drumming, drumming, 
" April's here and May is coming." 

[ii8] 



APRIL 

Twenty -seventh Day 

/^""^ OD give thee a trusting heart ! 

Could we but reahze that all of life Ues, for us, in 
the present ! For the present determines the 
future. Could we always keep in mind the lesson 
of discipHne that is the object of our earthly trials, 
we might be happy even in the midst of sorrows, 
trusting our Father's goodness in the small things 
as well as the great. May this spiritual compre- 
hension be yours. 



Let all doubts be dumb, 
Let all words be mild. 
All strifes be reconciled, 
All pains beguiled ! 
Light bring no blindness. 
Love no unkindness. 
Knowledge no ruin, 
P'ear no undoing. 

MATrHEW ARNOLD. 



[119] 



APRIL 
Twenty -eighth Day 

Fishing and Wishing, 

THREE little folk by the meadow brook, 
With a line of twine and a bent-pin hook^ 
And an eager, earnest, serious look, 
As if they were conning a lesson book, 
Sat resolutely fishing ! 

^^ I wish," said Tom, " for a pot of gold 
With every minute that has been told 

Since the day the earth was young or old, 
I'd have more money than I could hold. 
See, what I get for fishing ! " 

" I wish," said Ned, " that the ships at sea, 
And all that is in them, belonged to me. 

And all that have been, or ever will be : 
My wish is the best, don't you agree, 

And worth a day of fishing ! " 

'^ I wish," said Moll, with a toss of her head. 
And a pout of her lips that were cherry red, 

'^ You'd get your wishes, just as you said. 

And give them to me, — now, Tom and Ned, 
I've got the most by wishing ! '* 

ZITELLA COCKE. 

[I20] 



M 



APRIL 
Twenty-ninth Day 

AY you be kept for the service and glory 
of God. 



Be ashamed of nothing but sin. 

JOHN WESLEY. 

Keep my life that it may be 
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee, 

Keep my moments and my days, 
Let them flow in ceaseless praise. 

Keep my hands that they may move 
At the impulse of Thy love. 

Keep my feet that they may be 
Swift and beautiful for Thee. 

Keep my will, Oh keep it Thine ! 

For it is no longer mine. 
Keep my heart, it is Thine own : 

It is now Thy royal throne. 

Keep my love ; my Lord, I pour 
At Thy feet its treasure-store. 

Keep myself that I may be 
Ever, only, all for Thee. 

HAVERGAL. 

[121] 



APRIL 
Thirtieth Day 

COME up, come up, O soft spring airs, 
Come from your silver shining seas, 
Where all day long you toss the wave 
About the low and palm-plumed keys ! 

Forsake the spicy lemon groves. 
The balms and blisses of the South, 

And blow across the longing land 
The breath of your delicious mouth. 

Come from the almond bough you stir, 
The myrtle thicket where you sigh ; 

Oh, leave the nightingale, for here 
The robin whistles far and nigh ! 

For here in reed and rush and grass, 
And tiptoe in the dusk and dew, 

Each sod of the brown earth aspires 
To meet the sun, the sun and you. 

Then come, O fresh spring airs, once more 
Create the old delightful things, 

And woo the frozen world again 

With hints of heaven upon your wings ! 

HARRIET PReSCOTT SPOFFORD. 
[122] 




;^ '^g'^^S P^*" 



JTl V^ 



Ipen 



l-Jje morning is bright 
linging, sUll singing, 

for Him in Upe dark. 

francos l^icliey Hav(?tx-;nl. 



m 


gK iXV^?-'^/! ?^ 




^S 


i. 




^^^ 


1^^^ 


^^^^fe 


I 


i " Healthy at your biddings serve your majesty." ^^ 
1 Shakspeare. ^k 



MAY 



First Day 



HURRAH ! round the May-pole we merrily 
dance, 
Away, away and away, 

We weave a wish in, we weave a wish out, 
With the ribbons "all silken and gay. 
And we sing as we go, " Heigh-ho, heigh-ho. 
For the bright eyes that sparkle and glance, 
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, for the wish and the dance 
That come with the coming of May." 

Bright tresses are streaming in rollicking winds. 
Away, away and away, 

And this way and that, the footfall so pat 
Goes tripping it all the long day ; 
We sing as we go, ^' Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, 

For the bright eyes that sparkle and glance, 
Heigh-ho for the wish and the dance 

That come with the coming of May." 
[123] M. c. o. 



MAY 
Second Day 

C"^ ATHER your rose-buds and honey. 
y 

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may, — 

Old Time is still a- flying, 
And these same flowers that bloom to-day, 

To-morrow may be dying ! herrick. 

As the bee gathers honey from every nodding 
flower, so may you find pleasure in every passing 
day ! For the world is a garden, and the soul is 
a hive, and we busy mortals are the bees that are 
laying in winter stores. 

O, but to breathe the breath 
Of the cowslip and primrose sweet, 
With the sky above my head. 
And the grass beneath my feet. 

THOMAS HOOD. 

One long sweet Spring be thine, 
With buds still bursting fair ; 

Fresh flowers, 'mid shower and shine. 
Green, growing things thy share 
And incense in the air ! 

[124] 



MAY 
Third Day 

BEND low, O dusky Night, 
And give my spirit rest, 
Hold me to your deep breast 
And put old cares to flight. 
Give back the lost delight 

That once my soul possest 
When love was loveliest, 
Bend low, O dusky Night ! 

Enfold me in your arms — 
The sole embrace I crave 
Until the embracing grave 

Shield me from death's alarms. 

I dare your subtlest charms ; 
Your deeper spell I brave, 
O strong to slay or save, 

Enfold me in your arms. 

LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON. 

Happy thought — that May leads to June. As 
the Spring-time is but a preparation for harvest, 
so the days of youth are days of seed-sowing. 
May you sow none but good seeds, and may they 
all germinate and bear fruit. 

[125] 



MAY 
Fourth Day 

SWEET thrush ! I would that I could be 
A hermit in the crowd, like thee. 

Winter for the robins red, 
Spring-time for the swallow. 

Gladness still for you and yours 
As the swift months follow ! 



Wishes, wishes, everywhere ; 
Wishes in the very air. 
Gather them as blossoms rare 
For a Spring-time posy. 



% 



May is the bright dream of youth. I would that 
all your dreams might become realities ! 

Let long-lived pansies here their scents bestow, 
The violet languish and the roses glow ; 
In yellow glory let the crocus shine, 
Narcissus here his love- sick head recline ; 
Here hyacinth in purple sweetness rise, 
And tulips tinged with beauty's fairest dyes. 

THOMAS BLACKLOCK. 
[126] 



M 



MAY 
Fifth Day 

AKE your home in my heart. 

If you were April's lady 

And I were lord in May, 
We'd throw with leaves for hours, 
And draw for days with flowers, 
Till day like night, were shady 

And night were bright as day. 
If you were April's lady 

And I were lord in May. 

SWINBURNE. 

Haste, tender friend and adventure, 
The covetous heart would have you enter 

That it might wealthy be ; 
Haste your own good to meet 
And lift your golden feet 
Above the threshold high, 

With prosperous augury. 

BEN JONSON. 

When the buds of hope are young 
Thy whole life to joy be strung ; 
When the flowers of memory blow 
Thy whole life a Spring-time know ! 

[127] 



M 



MAY 

Sixth Day 

AY your heart never outgrow its Spring- 
time ! 



I wish it were Spring-time all the year round, 

(Sing hey for the bonnie Spring !) — 
When the tulips burst forth from the moist warm 
ground 
And the birds are all on the wing, 

As they sing 
Their greetings to joyous Spring. 

As they bring 
Their carols for beautiful Spring. 

The Summer will come with its sun's glad rays 

(Sing hey for the bonnie Spring !) 
And Autumn with mellow and golden days. 
And Winter, when sleigh-bells ring, 

And we sing 
The praises of each fair season in turn, 

Lingering 
On the sweetness of beautiful Spring ! 

EMILY BARNARD. 
[128] 



N 



MAY 

Seventh Day 

The Unfinished Prayer. 
OW I lay," — repeat it, darling. 



' Lay me," lisped the tiny lips 
Of my daughter, kneeHng, bending 
O'er her folded finger-tips. 

" Down to sleep " — '' To sleep," she murmured, 

And the curly head bent low ; 
" I pray the Lord," I gently added; 

" You can say it all, I know." 

" Pray the Lord," — the sound came faintly. 
Fainter still — " My soul to keep " ; 

Then the tired head fairly nodded, 
And the child was fast asleep. 

But the dewy eyes half opened 

When I clasped her to my breast. 
And the dear voice softly whispered, 

"Mamma, God knows all the rest." 

Oh, the trusting, sweet confiding 
Of the child heart ! Would that I 

Thus might trust my Heavenly Father, 
He who hears my feeblest cry. 

ANONYMOUS. 

[129] 



MAY 

Eighth Day 

MAIDEN, that readst this simple line. 
Enjoy thy youth, it will not stay; 
Enjoy the fragrance of thy prime, 
For oh, it is not always May ! 

Enjoy the spring of Love and Youth, 
To some good angel leave the rest ; 

For Time will teach thee soon the truth, 
There are no birds in last year's nest ! 

LONGFELLOW. 

Why should we grow dull with care when all the 
world is bright around us — we who are called in 
heaven ; we whose names are written there ; we 
who are dear to the heart of the Redeemer; 
whose wants Time and Eternity are made to serve ? 
Oh, to put aside fear, to throw away sorrow, to be 
rid of care, to hve in the sunshine of God's Pres- 
ent ! BEECHER. 

In these bright Spring days may you have respite 
from care, and leisure to indulge in the dreams of 
youth and hope. For youth's dreams are an 
inspiration unless they are allowed to control the 
mind instead of simply entertaining it. 

[130] 



MAY 
Ninth Day 

MAY Heaven guide you, 
No ill betide you, 

Friends walk beside you, 

This bright Spring day ! 

Blue skies bend o'er you, 

Blessings restore you, 

Hope go before you. 

While on your way ! 

Blossoms at your hurrying feet. 
Gentle winds to breathe on you, 

Sunbeams on your pathway sweet. 
What are they but wishes true ? 

A sweet ^^ No, no," with a sweet smile beneath — 
Becomes an honest girl ; — I'd have you learn it. 

As for plain "Yes ! " — it may be said, i' faith, 
Too plainly and too oft : pray, well discern it. 

Not that I'd have my pleasure incomplete. 
Or lose the kiss for which my lips beset you ; 

But that in suffering me to take it, sweet, 

I'd have you say " No, no ! I will not let you." 

LEIGH HUNT. 
[131] 



MAY 
Tenth Day 

GOOD night, dear Love ! I pray the Lord, 
By every promise of His Word, 
That, day and night, may follow thee, 
With ever-folding ministry. 
Thy better angels, holding thee 
In all loud day's prosperity. 
And in the haunting night-watch lone ; 
From all the evil sin hath wrought, 
From, tempting deed and soiling thought. 
From sorrow and from murdered faith, 
From loss in life and loss in death. 
The blessed angels hold thee sure 
And lead thee safe and save thee pure. 

MARY CLEMMER HUDSON. 

Blessings o'er thee beaming. 

Mercies round thee streaming 

Like the dew-drops gleaming 
In the morning sun ; 

So may thou awaken. 

And thy path be taken, 
Cark and care forsaken. 

Thou and gladness one ! 

[132] 



MAY 
Eleventh Day 

OWEET sleep and happy dreams ! 

Now peaceful days and balmy nights be yours ! 
May there be just enough of delicious Spring-time 
languor in your veins to soothe you to rest as 
a tired child is quieted to sleep at night by its 
mother's tenderness ! 

The May- time flowers are sleeping, 

The sun is out of sight, — 
God have you in His keeping 

All through the silent night ! 

The moon is rising calm and clear, 
'Tis late to swing to-night, — 

silvery moon, your shining sphere 
Fills all the world with light. 

1 wish from 'neath the garden tree 

I now might swing away, 
Through moonlight air or summer breeze 
To find where fairies stray. 

EMILY BARNARD. 
[133] 



MAY 

Twelfth Day 

Corinna goes a- Maying, 

GET up, get up for shame ! the blooming morn 
Upon her wings presents the God unshorn. 
See how Aurora throws her fair 
Fresh-quilted colours through the air ; 
Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see 
The dew bespangling herb and tree. 
Come, let us go, while we are in our prime ; 
And take the harmless folly of the time. 

We shall grow old apace, and die 

Before we know our liberty. 
Our lives are short, and our days run 
As fast away as does the sun ; 
And as a vapour, or a drop of rain 
Once lost, can ne'er be found again; 
So when you and I are made 
A fable, song, or fleeting shade ; 
All love, all liking, all delight 
Lies drown'd with us in endless night. 
Then, while Time serves, and we are but decaying. 
Come, my Corinna, come, let's go a- Maying. 

ROBERT HERRICK. 
[134] 



MAY 
Thirteenth Day 

SLEEP, child ! while healing Nature breaks 
Her ointment on the wounds of Thought ; 
Joy, that anew with morning wakes, 

Shall bring you sight it ne'er has brought. 

ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON. 

Then, darling, rest upon my breast 

And teach my heart to lean 
With thy sweet trust upon the arm 

Which folds us both unseen ! 

WHITTIER. 

Slumber Song. 

Take us, Sleep, on thy horse — 

As a mother, journeying, 
tlolds her babe and on her course 

Lullaby doth softly sing. 
Let thine hair fall round thy face 

Veiling visions in thine eyes. 

Carry us to Paradise 
At thy steed's most quiet pace. 

On thy horse, take us. Sleep ! 

ELIZABETH CAVAZZA. 
[135] 



MAY 

Fourteenth Day 

MY heart's perpetual wish shall be : 
As I do love my love 
So may my love love me. 

The Tryst, 

Blow ! winds, and break the blossoms ; 

Part, clouds, that hide the sun ; 
For the timid feet of a maiden sweet 

Adown the valley run. 

The thorn of the wild rose wounds her ; 

The hem of her skirt is torn 
Where the cool gray dew has wet it through 

With the tears of a summer morn. 

No foot is heard to follow ; 

No eye her path may see ; 
There is no ear her steps to hear 

As she hastens unto me. 

O wild, sweet banks of roses ! 

O fragrant fields of dew ! 
My darhng's kiss is more, I wis, 

Than a thousand leagues of you ! 

CHARLES HENRY LUDERS. 
[136] 



MAY 

Fifteenth Day 

CHRIST does not stand apart from us, up in 
heaven somewhere. Faber says truly : 
" But God is never so far off 
As even to be near ! 
He is within ; our spirit is 

The home He holds most dear." 

I think of Christ handing the bread as a symbol 
and saying, " Feed on Me." 

In some way we have missed our joy. Ah, yes ! 
we too many say : 

^^ So all the way I thought myself 
Homeless, forlorn, and weary ; 
Missing my joy, I walked the earth, 
Myself God's sanctuary." 

Oh, for eyes to be open and ears to be unstopped ! 
that we may see and hear what will make Heaven 
to us. 

For oh ! if the exiles of earth could but win 
One sight of the beauty of Jesus above — 

From that hour they would cease to be able to sin. 
And earth would be heaven, for heaven is Love. 

MARGARET BOTTOME. 



o 



MAY 
Sixteenth Day 

H, to smell the green grass and the sweet 
briar roses ! merriden. 



We pray for a beautiful Spring-time. We thank 
God for the past Springs with all their beauty. 
How many memories that come to our hours of 
musing are full of sweetness, as things are that 
come from a garden of flowers. We rejoice that 
God is making heaven to us as a garden, and 
that the influences wafted thence are so full of 
fragrance, and have in them so much to make 
us patient here ; so much to make us willing to 
live, so much that makes us content to submit 
to His will. 

May our Spring-time here be the promise of the 
everlasting Spring-tide of heaven. beecher. 

The zephyrs on their light wings 

Bear scents of hawthorn-bloom in May, 

Such odors, flowers, and all sweet things 
I wish you on this vernal day. 

I heard a robin sing, just now, 

And then I wished for you — 
I heard your footfall on the grass. 

And thus my dream came true. m. c. o. 
[138] 



MAY 

Seventeenth Day 

Implora Pace, 

{In the Cemetery of Certosa.) 

I STOOD within the cypress gloom 
Where old Ferrara's dead are laid, 
And mused on many a sculptured tomb 
Moss-grown and mouldering in the shade. 

And there was one the eye might pass, 
And careless foot might tread upon ; 

A crumbling tablet in the grass. 

With weeds and wild vines overrun. 

In the dim light I stooped to trace 
The lines the tome-worn marble bore. 

Of reverent praise or prayer for grace — 
'' hnplora pace!^^ — nothing more. 

Name, fame, and rank, if any were. 

Had long since vanished from the stone. 

Leaving the meek, pathetic prayer, 
" Peace I implore ! " and this alone. 

CHARLES LOTIN HILDRETH. 

O miracle of Spring — 
Give dead hopes blossoming 
And resurrection hour ! 
[139I 



w 



MAY 

Eighteenth Day 

ISHES are like dew-drops — they refresh 
the soul. 

Flower and Thorn, 

Take them and keep them, 

Silvery thorn and flower, 
Plucked just at random 

In the rosy weather — 
Snowdrops and pansies, 

Sprigs of wayside heather. 
And five-leaved wild-rose 

Dead within an hour. 

Take them and keep them ; 

Who can tell? Some day, dear, 
(Though they be withered, 

Flower and thorn and blossom,) 
Held for an instant 

Up against thy bosom, 
They might make December 

Seem to thee like May, dear ! 

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. 
[140] 



MAY 
Nineteenth Day 



G 



OD love you, dear heart. 

MARTHA WASHINGTON. 



A wish for the girl I love — 
God love her ! 
A song for the eyes of tender shine, 
And the fragrant mouth that melts on mine, 
And the shimmering tresses uncontrolled 
That clasp her neck with tendril gold ; 
The blossom-mouth and the dainty chin, 
And the little dimple out and in 
The girl I love — 

God bless her ! 

MRS. ARCHIBALD. 

May the all- wise Father bless thee — 
Thee beloved, for whom I pray, 

Bless thee in the silent night-time. 
Bless thee through the busy day. 

Bless thee in the storms of winter. 
Bless thee in the summer's shine. 

Bless thee with all earthly treasure. 
Bless thee with His love divine. 

[141] 



MAY 

Twentieth Day 

The Key of Life. 

" TF I had the key of life," she said, 

X Smiling and nodding her golden head, 
^' What would I do, do you wish to know ? 
I'd unlock the gates of the future so 
I could learn the things that I long to know. 

" If I had the key of life, I'd see 
What lies in the future for you and me. 
And find," her face flushed with ruddy glow, 
" If together we through life are to go 
Or not. All things that I wish to know ! " 

" If I had the key of life," he said. 
His strong hand smoothing her golden head, 
** I'd unlock all beautiful things for you, 
Keep back the clouds, but let in the blue. 
And all things fair I would bring to you. 

" I would let no darkening sorrow touch 
This fair young head that I love so much ; 
But all things beautiful, all things sweet, 
I would lay with my heart at your little feet, 
And your life should blossom and grow more sweet." 

J. K. LUDLUM. 

[142] 



MAY 

Twenty-first Day 

The Key of Life. 

" TF we had the key of Hfe," she said, 

X The sunset touching her silvered head ; 
" Do you remember, my dear, how we 
Planned the things we would do if we had the key 
Of the future that spread out so temptingly? 

" There should no sorrow come near us two ; 
The earth was bounded for you by me ; 
No darkness should fall ; the morning sun 
Should shine forever, and all things done 
That could make us happy ! " 

" If we had the key of life," he said. 
His trembling hand on her bowed gray head, 
" If we had the key and the wisdom then 
That we have now, we would give it again 
To Him who knows all the needs of men ! 

" If v/e had the key, with our narrow sight ; 
We'd unlock the wrong and beheve it right ; 
We'd let in the sunshine, but never rain, 
x\nd without the raindrops there'd be no gain — 
No sheaves for the harvest without the rain ! " 

J. K. LUDLUM. 

[143] 



H 



MAY 

Twenty-second Day 

APPY be thy dreams ! 

Wake not, but hear me, love ! 
Adrift, adrift on slumber's sea, 
I would thy soul might hst to me. 

Wake not, but hear me, love ! 

A gift from Sleep, the restful king, 
A happy wish for thee I bring. 

Wake not, but hear me, love ! 

Of all earth's wishes now 'tis thine 
This once to choose the most divine. 

So choose, and sleep, my love ! 
But ne'er again in choice be free 
Unless thou choose to wish for me ! 

LEW WALLACE. 

Sleep give thee all his rest ! 
With half that wish the wisher's eyes be pressed. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

Expecting still thy advent home 
I ever meet you on your way 

With wishes, thinking here to-day. 
Or here to-morrow he will come. 
[144] 



M 



MAY 

Twenty-third Day 

AY you have just enough sohtude to escape 
loneHness. 



An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain, 
Oh,, give me my lowly thatched cottage again ! 
The birds singing gaily, that came at my call, 
Give me those with the peace of mind, dearer 
than all ! 

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home, 
There's no place like Home, 
There's no place like Home ! 

JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 

Upon the tall grass where the deer are lying 

The pale light falls. 
While, wailing like some lost wind that is dying, 

The plover calls. 

Could I the secret of his note discover, — 

Sad, dreary strain — 
I'd sit and whistle all day, like the plover. 

And mean the same. 

WILLIAM OSBORN STODDARD. 
[145] 



MAY 

Twenty-fourth Day 

TV /T AY you be happy in life's Spring-time ! 

Now we are young and gay, love, 

Now we are young and gay ; 
All distant seems December, 

In this our life's young May. 
Now in our upward journey 

May true love make us brave, 
We'll fret not for the morrow, 

We'll reck not of the grave ; 
"Thank God for all the sweet days," 

We'll whisper while we may, 
And wish for nothing better — 

While we are young and gay. 

Lead off the dance, thou dimple-footed May ! 
While gurgling brooks and silver fountains play. 
Lead off the dance ! Each breathing creature 

springs, 
The impulse of its gladness to obey ; 
Life stirs anew in all created things. 
All, with the worm, grow conscious now of wings. 

E. C. KINNEY. 

[146] 



o 



MAY 

Twenty-fifth Day 

H, mayst thou ever be what now thou art, 
Nor unbeseem the promise of thy Spring. 

BYRON. 

Her eyes be Hke the violets, 

Ablow in Sudbury lane ; 
When she doth smile her face is sweet 

As blossoms after rain ; 
With grief I think of my gray hairs 

And wish me young again. 

LISETTE WOODWORTH REESE. 

This be my prayer for her — 

Blessings and honour, 
Rest like a halo bright. 

Ever upon her ! 

How many kisses do I ask? 
Now you set me to my task. 
First, sweet maiden, will you tell me 
How many waves are in the sea? 
How many stars are in the sky? 
How many lovers you make sigh ? 
How many sands are on the shore ? 
I shall wish just one kiss more. 

WILLIAM MAXWELL. 

[147] 



MAY 

Twenty -sixth Day 

As the Crow flies, 

BUCCANEER with blackest sails, 
Steering home by compass true. 
Now that all the rich West pales 

From its ingot hue, 
Would that compass in thy breast, 

Thou couldst lend, for guiding me 
Where my hope hath made her nest -— 
In how far a tree ! 

Swerving not, nor stooping low, 
To that dear and distant mark 

Could I undiverted go. 
What were coming dark ? 

CLINTON SCOLLARD. 

Shell-Hke lily, flushed with faintest color, 

Hid in long grass up the mountain side, 
Where the loud brown torrent's roar comes duller. 

And in simple gladness you abide, — 
Am I heartless that your whole of living 

Thus I take to please her for one hour? 
Yet I wish of you no greater giving 

Than of mine own self, poor wasted flower. 

WILLIAM MORTON PAYNE. 

[148] 



MAY 

Twenty -seventh Day 

I WISH and I wish that the Spring would go faster, 
Nor long summer bide so late ; 
And I could grow on like the foxglove and aster, 
For some things are ill to wait. 

I wait for the day when dear hearts shall discover. 
While dear hands are laid on my head ; 

The child is a woman, the book may close over. 
For all the lessons are said. 

I wait for my story — the birds cannot sing it. 

Not one, as he sits on the tree ; 
The bells cannot ring it, but long years, O bring it ! 

Such as I wish it to be. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

Then wherefore in these merry dales, 
Should we, I pray, be duller ? 

No, let us sing some roundelayes, 
And make our mirth the fuller. 

And, while thus inspired we sing, 

Let all the streets with echoes ring ; 

Woods and hills and everything 

Bear witness we are merry. 

GEORGE WITHER. • 
[149] 



H 



MAY 

Twenty -eighth Day 

ANG Sorrow ! Care will kill a cat, 
And therefore let's be merry. 

GEORGE MATHER. 



I think it is no folly 

To wish that melancholy 

Were banished from the earth ; 
Naught from it can we borrow 
But heavy care and sorrow, 

And days devoid of mirth. 

And then, 'twould be my pleasure. 
With neither stint nor measure, 

To welcome joy and peace ; 
Then would our hearts grow lighter. 
Then would the world grow brighter, 

And murmurings would cease. 

But since no wish avails us, 
And discontent assails us 

(Tis Melancholy's child), 
Our lot, we'll not mistake it, 
Our life, we'll bravely take it 

And just be reconciled. 

[ISO] 



M 



MAY 

Twenty-ninth Day 

AY hope keep your heart Hght ! 



Despair not. Think not you have altered 
If, at sometime, the gayer note has faltered. 
We are as God has made us. Gladness, pain. 
Delight and death, and moods of bliss and bane, 
With love and hate or good and evil — all 
At separate times in separate accents call ; 
Yet 'tis the same heart-throb within the breast 
That gives an impulse to our worst and best. 
I doubt not when our earthly cries are ended, 
. The Listener finds them in one music blended. 

GEORGE p. LATHROP. 

When we cannot see our way, 
Let us trust and still obey ; 
He who bids us forward go. 
Cannot fail the way to show. 
Though the sea be deep and wide. 
Though a passage seem denied ; 
Fearless let us still proceed. 
Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead. 

[151] 



L' 



MAY 

Thirtieth Day 

Decoration Day. 
ET us then uniting, bury 
All our bitter feuds in dust, 
And to future conflicts carry 

Mutual faith and common trust ; 
Always he who most forgiveth in his brother is 
most just. 

Know we not our dead are looking 
Downward with a sad surprise, 
All our strife of words rebuking. 
With their mild and holy eyes? 
Shall we grieve the holy angels ? Shall we cloud 
their blessed skies ? 

Let us draw their mantles o'er us. 
Which have fallen in our way ; 
Let us do the work before us, 

Cheerly, bravely, while we may, 
Ere the long night-silence cometh and with us it 
is not day ! whittier. 

Love and tears for the blue, 
Tears and love for the gray. 

[152] 



MAY 

Thirty-first Day 

COME, my beloved, let us go forth. 
Solomon's song 7:11. 

Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if 
the vines flourish, whether the tender grape 
appear and the pomegranates bud forth. 

Solomon's song 7:12. 

How fares thy garden-plot, sweetheart ? Keep it 
from weeds and tares, I pray you ! 

Go make thy garden fair as thou canst, 

Thou makest never alone — 
And he whose lot is next to thine 

May see it and mend his own. 

And the next may copy his, sweetheart, 

Till all are fair and sweet. 
And when the Master comes at eve 

Bright flowers His way shall greet. 

Then shall thy joy be full, sweetheart, 

In the garden so fair to see, 
In the Master's words of praise for all 

And a look of His own for thee. 

MADELINE ARNE. 
[153] 





E^S^S^S^ 


3 


3| ''^ And smooth success be strewed before your^\ 




^^^^^^^ 



JUNE 



F 



First Day 

AST crowding on, each wish that lifts the 
soul, asks us to give it wings of words. 



Storm the earth with odors sweet, 
O ye flowers that bloom in light ! 

Crowd about June's shining feet, 
All ye blossoms bright. 

CELIA THAXTER. 



Thus, God's bright sunshine overhead, 

God's flowers beside your feet, 
The path of life that you must tread 
Can little hold of fear or dread, 
And by such pleasant pathways led 
May all your hfe be sweet. 

HELEN WAITHMAN. 

[154] 




nd shronc 



(jyolush overptoNA/ in son a. 



Franccts l\idlc\- Ilawrciul 



'.V 



JUNE 
Second Day 

FAIR thoughts and happy hours attend on 
thee. SHAKSPEARE. 

Along the ordered garden-ways 

The tall white lilies grow, 
May all your life in all your days 
As white and fragrant grow. 
To a Bee, 
Hither, meadow gossip, tell me. 
Will you never pause to rest? 
From the gray of dawn I've watched you 

Till the sun has burned the west. 
Seen you whisper to the gentians 

What you heard upon the wheat, 
And the flowers nod in laughter 
At the stories you repeat. 

And lest any of your items 

Through the day should be forgot, 
I believe you always write them 

On the dim forget-me-not. 
If I trust you with my wishes 

Far more precious, little bee. 
Will you tell me on the morrow 

If my sweetheart thinks of me ? 

[155] H. p. BEACH. 



JUNE 
Third Day 

MAY you have silent communings with 
Heaven ! 

Let thy soul walk softly in thee, 
As a saint in heaven unshod, 

For to be alone with silence 
Is to be alone with God. 

HAGEMAN. 

When the heart is sore with anguish, or sick with 
defeat, there is no balm for its wounds like the 
brooding tenderness of silence. 

Let us then labor for an inward stillness, — 
An inward stillness and an inward healing ; 
That perfect silence when the hps and heart 
Are still, and we no longer entertain 
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, 
But God alone speaks in us, and we wait 
In singleness of heart, that we may know 
His will, and in the silence of our spirits. 
That we may do His will, and do that only ! 

LONGFELLOW. 

Still through the silence hear 
Voices from far and near 
Speaking to thee. 

[156] 



L 



JUNE 
Fourth Day 

OOK in the lily's cup ^^ — wishes are there. 



A flower comes from the same heart as man him- 
self, and is sent to be his companion and minister. 
There is something divinely magical, because pro- 
foundly human, in them. In some, at least, the 
human is plain ; we see a face of child-like peace 
and confidence that appeals to our heart. They 
are joyous, inarticulate children, come with vague 
messages from the Father of all. . . . From every 
wild flower of the field we may drink as from a 
sacramental chalice overflowing with His love : — 

For oh, but the world is fair, is fair ! 

And oh, but the world is sweet ! 
I will out in the gold of the blossoming mold, 

And sit at the Master's feet. 
And the wish that my heart would speak 

I will fold in the lily's rim, 
That the lips of the blossom, more pure and meek 

May oifer it up to Him ! 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 
[157] 



M 



JUNE 
Fifth Day 

AY I be the first in your heart. 



There is no one beside thee and no one above 
thee, 

Thou standest alone as the nightingale sings, 

And my words that would praise thee are impo- 
tent things ; 

For none can express thee, though all should 
approve thee, 

I wish thee so much that I only can love thee ! 

MRS. BROWNING. 

The deepest wishes are often inarticulate ; the full 
heart cannot always formulate its wish. 

For these I own my debt. 

Memory with her eyelids wet. 
Fain would thank thee even yet ! 

To thy wishes, gay or sad, 
Sunny hued or sober clad 
Something of my own I add ; 

Well assured that you will take 
Even the offering which I make 
Kindly, for the giver's sake, whittier. 
[158] 



M 



JUNE 
Sixth Day 

AY all your ships reach port. 



Crave not to be upon deep waters when summer 
calms are past, but wish rather for some haven in 
which to live over thy past adventures. 

A life on the ocean wave, 

A home on the rolling deep, 
Where the scattered waters rave. 

And the winds their revels keep ; 
Like an eagle caged, I pine, 

On this dull, unchanging shore ; 
Oh ! give me the flashing brine. 

The spray and the tempest's roar ! 

Once more on the deck I stand 

Of my own swift-gliding craft ; 
Set sail ! farewell to the land ! 

The gale follows fair abaft. 
We shoot through the sparkling foam 

Like an ocean-bird set free ; — 
Like the ocean-bird, our home 

We'll find far out on the sea. 

EPES SARGENT. 
[159] 



JUNE 
Seventh Day 

PLAGUE ! ef they ain't sompin' in 
Work 'at kind o' goes ag'n 

My convictions ! — 'long about 

Her' in June especially ! 
Under some old apple tree, 

Jes' a-restin' through and through, 
I could git along without 

Nothin' else at all to do 

Only jes' a-wishin' you 
Was a-gittin' there like me, 
And June was eternity. 

JAMES W. RILEY. 

I'm gittin' w'ared out wid dis here thing 

O' t'ihn' fur all o' you ; 
Sometimes I wishes de ole slave ways 

Wus back for a week or two. 

" How come ? '* Jes dis : ter make you work ! 

De niggers never did lay 
Out on a bench in de sunshine den, 

An' sun deyselves all day. 
" Ferginyer Creepers " was bad, at fas' ; 
Ferginyer Sleepers is p'int'ly wus' ! 

ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL GORDON. 
[l6o] 



JUNE 
Eighth Day 

THE lessons hardest to acquire 
Bring greatest recompense at last ; 
Souls broader grow when bathed in fire ; 

God still guides rudder, helm and mast ! 
We do not understand the path — 

To us it seems a trackless waste ; 
But in the soul's sweet aftermath 

God's secret wish may still be traced. 

KATHARINE H. TERRY. 

Something to learn, and something to forget; — 
Hold fast the good and seek the better yet ; 
Press on, and prove the pilgrim wish of youth, 
That creeds are milestones on the road to truth. 

HENRY VAN DYKE. 

Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill. 
Complain no more, for thou, O heart, 

Direct the random of the will 
As rhymes direct the rage of art. 

The dark hath many dear avails ; 

The dark distils divinest dews ; 
The dark is rich in nightingales, 

With dream and with the heavenly muse. 

SIDNEY L.\NIER. 

[i6i] 



JUNE 

Ninth Day 

I NEVER hear the sweet warble of a bird from 
its native wood, without a silent wish that such 
a cheerful voice and peaceful shade were mine. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Gathering jasmine 

White for her posies, 
Standeth a maiden 

'Mid the June roses ; 
Would I the breeze were 

Swift round her flying 
And 'twixt her red lips 

Sweetest death dying. 

EMILY BARNARD. 

All the long, drowsy afternoon 

The little sleepy stream 
Whispers a melancholy tune. 
As if it dreamed of June 

And whispered in its dream. 

W. D. HOWELLS. 

O, to be home again, home again, home again, 
Now when the roses are all in their prime, 

O, to be hopeful and joyous and young again, 
O, to forget the swift passage of time ! 
[162] 



JUNE 
Tenth Day 

JUST for to-day ; to-morrow is not mine 
And may be spent where days unclouded shine. 
This cross is heavy for an upward way, 
My weak hands tremble ; give me strength to-day. 

Just for to-day ; the poorest child am I 
That heaven-ward looks, yet ravens when they cry 
Receive Thy bounty, though despised are they ; 
Remember, then, this lowly heart to-day. 

Just for to-day ; Thy manna food I ask 

That I may go rejoicing to my task, 

And if from coohng streams my feet should stray, 

Let some rock prove a fountain for to-day. 

Just for to-day ; it is much better so ; 
I might grow arrogant did I not know 
My poverty, yet find it sweet to say : 
"It is Thy gift, the blessings of to-day." 

Just for to-day ; what more can heart demand 
From one who will each longing understand ? 
Thy love withholds no treasure, so I pray : 
"Choose what may come, but give me strength 
to-day." 

MYRA GOODWIN PLANZ. 
[163] 



JUNE 
Eleventh Day 

I WISH you : 
" The witchery of crimson roses bright, 
The purity of hhes tall and white.'' 

I remember that there was nothing I wished for 
so much as a walk in June-time through an English 
lane. 

What a time it is ! How June stands illuminated 
in the calendar. The windows of heaven are all 
wide open, and the sunlight streaming through 
seems the visible wish of God for our happiness. 

Down in a Devonshire lane in June 

Roses are climbing, 
Birds all in concert a merry tune 

Sweetly are chiming ; 
Streamlets are trickhng down through the ferns 

Making them shiny. 
Twinkling the play which the light returns 

From wavelets tiny ; 
Would I could wander with thee, my own, 

There in the gloaming. 
Eve would be sweet to us two alone 

While we were roaming. 

EMILY BARNARD. 
[164] 



JUNE 
Twelfth Day 

THERE'S no dew left on the daisies and clover, 
There's no rain left in heaven : 
I've said my ^* seven times " over and over. 
Seven times one are seven. 

I am old, so old, I can write a letter ; 

My birthday lessons are done ; 
The lambs play always, they know no better ; 

They are only one times one. 

O velvet bee, you're a dusty fellow. 
You've powdered your legs with gold ! 

O brave marshmary-buds, rich and yellow, 
Give me your money to hold ! 

O columbine, open your folded wrapper, 
Where two twin turtle-doves dwell ! 

cuckoo pint, toll me the purple clapper 
That hangs in your clear green bell ! 

And show me your nest with the young ones in it ; 
I will not steal them away ; 

1 am old ! you may trust me, linnet, Hnnet — 

I am seven times one to-day. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

[165] 



JUNE 
Thirteenth Day 

WHEN nature had made all her birds, 
With no more cares to think on, 
She gave a rippling laugh, and out 
There flew a Bobolinkon ! 

One springs from out the dew-wet grass ; 

Another follows after ; 
The morn is thrilling with their songs 

And peals of fairy laughter. 

O boundless self-contentment, voiced 

In flying air-born bubbles ! 
O joy that mocks our sad unrest, 

And drowns our earth-born troubles ! 

Your drunken jargon through the fields. 

Your bobohnkish gabble. 
Your fine Anacreontic glee. 

Your tipsy reveller's babble ! 

O could I share, without champagne 

Or muscadel, your frolic, 
The glad delirium of your joy, 

Your fun unapostolic. 

CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH. 

[i66] 



L 



JUNE 
Fotirteenth Day 

ET us have peas. 



The other day I went to my garden to get a mess 
of peas. I had seen the day before that they 
were just ready to pick. How I had Hned the 
ground, planted, hoed, bushed them ! How I 
had dehghted in the growing, the blowing, the 
podding ! What a touching thought it was that 
they had all podded for me ! When I went to 
pick them I found the pods all split open, and 
the peas gone. The dear little birds, who are 
so fond of the strawberries, had eaten them all. 
Perhaps there were left as many as I had planted ; 
I did not count them. I made a rapid estimate 
of the cost of the seed, the price of labor, the 
anxiety of weeks of watchfulness. I looked about 
me on the face of Nature. The wind blew from 
the south so soft and treacherous ! A thrush 
sang in the woods so deceitfully ! All Nature 
seemed fair. But who was to give me back 
my peas ! Charles Dudley warner. 



1:167] 



T)AP'^ 



JUNE 
Fifteenth Day 

"S got his patent-right, and rich as all 
creation ; 

But where's the peace and comfort that we all 
had before? 
Le's go a visitin' back to Griggsby's Station — 
Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore ! 

Le's go a visitin' back to Griggsby^s Station — 
Back where the latch-string's a-hangin' from 
the door, 
And ever' neighbor 'round the place is dear as 
a relation — 
Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore ! 

I want to see the piece-quilts the Jones girls 
is makin' ; 
And I want to pester Laury 'bout their freckled 
hired hand, 
And joke her 'bout the widower she come purt' 
nigh a-takin'. 
Till her pap got his pension 'lowed in time to 
save his land. 



[i68] 



JUNE 
Sixteenth Day 

T3EAR him my greetings and good wishes ! 

Sing to him, say to him, here at his gate 

Where the boughs of the stately elms are meeting, 

Some one hath Hngered to meditate, 

And send him unseen a wish and greeting. 

That many another hath done the same. 

Though not by a sound was the silence broken ; 

The surest pledge of a deathless name 

Is the silent homage of thoughts unspoken. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Sing again the song you sung 
When we were together young — 
When there were but you and I 
Underneath the summer sky. 

Sing the song, and o'er and o'er, 
Though I know that nevermore 
Will it seem the song you sung 
When we were together young. 

GEORGE W. CURTIS. 

[169] 



JUNE 
Seventeenth Day 

THERE is no truer delight for the soul than 
to have trust in the fidelity of another. It 
makes a pillow of softness for the touch of pain, 
and pours a balm into the very source of sorrow. 
It is a consoHng voice that dwells as with an 
eternal echo on the ear^ a dew of mercy falling 
on the bruised and troubled heart. Bereavements 
and griefs sometimes descend upon us with chast- 
ening influence, but there is no solace to the 
bitterness of broken faith. 

O one in sun and shade the same, 
In weal and woe my steady friend, 

Whatever by that holy name 
The angels comprehend. 

Not bHnd to faults and fetters, thou 
Hast never failed the good to see. 

Nor judged by one unseemly bough 
The upward struggling tree. 

Through all the shadows of my way 
Thy smile hath fallen soft and clear — 

And at the close of my hfe's day 
May it still seem as near. 

WHITTIER. 

[170] 



JUNE 
Eighteenth Day 

OH^ to lie ill long grasses ! 
Oh, to dream on the plain ! 
When the west wind sings as it passes, 

A weird and unceasing refrain ; 
Where the rank grass tosses and wallows, 

And the plain's rim dazzles the eye, 
When hardly a silver cloud bosses 
The flashing steel shield of the sky ! 

To watch the gay gulls as they glitter 
Like snow flashes and fall from on high, 

To dip in the deeps of the prairie, 
When the crows-foot tosses awry. 

Like the swirl o' swift waltzers in glee, 
To the harsh, shrill creak of the cricket 

And the song of the lark and the bee ! 

HAMLIN GARLAND. 

Many sweet little poems are the outburst of mo- 
mentary wishes ; — words to which the song of 
birds, the rustling of leaves, and the gurgle of cool 
waters form the appropriate music. 

LONGFELLOW. 

[171] 



L 



JUNE 
Nineteenth Day 

ET hope your guiding star still be 
And pierce the vast eternity. 



Grave these three words upon thy soul : 
Hope, Faith, and Love ; and thou shalt find 
Strength when life's surges cease to roll. 
Light where thou else wert blind. 

Wishes are hopes ; they clothe the life with beauty 
even as the leaves clothe the trees with verdure. 
When those wishes are realized they are like the 
blossoms shining out between the leaves. 

Into the ocean of God's peace 

May'st all thy thoughts serenely flow. 

While their unrestful murmurings cease, — 
And peace and calmness thou shalt know. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

If we would take a model for our living, I would 
not wish it to be the ocean, which ebbs and flows, 
or the stars which fly without ceasing ; but rather 
take the summer air, which has its times of 
earnest labour and times of perfect peace. 

PHILIP G. HAMERTON. 
[172] 



JUNE 
Twentieth Da} 

' (^^ HEART, tired out with pain to-day, 

V^ A thousand years to come 
Thy pain will all have passed away. 

Thy crying shall be dumb : 
As gayly bird-wings o'er the river 

Shall gleam with life that once was thine. 
As if this pulse, with pain a-quiver. 

Still leaped with gladness half-divine : 
To thee, to all, it is as one 
When once thy restless years are done.'* 

Oh, vain to turn upon your heart, 

And think to still it so ! 
It cries back unto all your art. 

With pleading, ^^\h, no, no ! 
For gladness dies as well as sorrow ; 

Then let me live, since I must die. 
Ah, quick, for death will come to-morrow — 

Quick, ere my years in vain go by ! 
Because to-morrow I am clay. 
Give me my happiness to-day! " 

MILICENT WASHBURN SHINN. 



[173] 



JUNE 
Twenty 'first Day 

NOT vainly on thy gentle shrine, 
Where love and mirth and friendship twine 
Their varied gifts, I offer mine. whittier. 

And so I wish you this day good-speed ; and the 
favour of Hercules and the Muses, and to you who 
best deserve, the crown of parsley and then of 
laurel. 

Honour, riches, every blessing 
Long continued, aye increasing. 
Hourly joys be still upon you ! 
, Juno sings her blessings on you ! 

Spring come to you, at the farthest, 
In the very end of harvest ! 
Scarcity and want shall shun you ; 
Ceres' blessing so is on you. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

O human soul ! so long as thou canst so 
Set up a mark of everlasting light 
To cheer thee and to right thee if thou roam. 
Not with lost toil thou labourest through the night ! 
Make thou the heaven thou hopest, indeed thy 
home ! matthew Arnold. 

[174] 



JUNE 
Twenty-second Day 

I CAN wish nothing for you that does not hinge 
upon this underlying wish — may you hsten 
to the voice of conscience. 

And I beseech you that conscience shall never be 
your servant, but be you the servant of conscience. 

Little one, little one. 

They say life is hard : 
Thou wilt hear this old story 

From preacher and bard : 
Little one, listen, 

My wish is to-day 
To make thy life easy — 

And this is the way. 

Little one, little one, 

Down in thy heart. 
Is a voice true and earnest, 

Unspoiled and apart ; 
It speaks to thee always ; 

Always obey : 
Then life will be easy 

Through night and through day. 

MRS. BUTTS. 

[175] 



JUNE 
Twenty-third Day 

YOUR heart is a music-box, dearest ! 
With exquisite tunes at command, 
Of melody sweetest and clearest, 

If tried by a delicate hand ; 
But its workmanship, love, is so fine, 

At a single rude touch it would break; 
Then, oh ! be the magic key mine. 

Its fairy-like whispers to wake. 
And there's one little tune it can play, 

That I fancy all others above, 
You learned it of Cupid one day — 

It begins with and ends with " I love ! ' "' I love ! ' ' 

My heart echoes to it ^^ I love ! " 

FRANCES SARGENT OSGOOD. 

Oh, were my luve yon lilac fair 
Wi' purple blossoms to the spring. 

And I a bird to shelter there 

When wearied on my drooping wing. 

How wad I mourn when it was torn 
By autumn wild and winter rude ! 

But I wad sing on wanton wing 

When youthful spring its bloom renewed. 

BURNS. 

[176] 



JUNE 
Twenty-fourth Day 

SWEET souls around us, watch us still, 
Press nearer to our side ; 
Into our thoughts, into our prayers, 
With gentle helping glide. 

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. 

Could you have seen the violets 

That blossomed in her eyes. 
Could you have kissed that golden hair, 

And drunk her baby sighs, — 
You would have been her tiring- maid. 

As joyfully as I ; 
Content to deck your little queen, 

And let the world go by. 

Could you have seen those violets 

Hide in their graves of snow, 
Drawn all that gold along your hand. 

While she lay, smiling so, — 
O, you would tread this weary earth 

As heavily as I ; 
Content to clasp her little grave. 

And let the world go by. 

EMILY WARREN. 
[.^77'] 



JUNE 
Twenty-fifth Day 



O 



FOR the touch of a vanished hand 
And the sound of a voice that is still. 

TENNYSON. 



A Song of a Nest, 

I pray you, hear my song of a nest 

For it is not long; 
You shall never light in a summer quest 

The bushes among, 
You shall never light on a prouder sitter, 

A fairer nestful, nor ever know 
A softer sound than their tender twitter. 
That, wind-like, did come and go. 

I had a nestful, once, of my own. 

Ah, happy, happy I ! 
Right dearly I loved them, but when they were 
grown 

They spread out their wings to fly. 
O, one after one, they flew away 

Far up to the heavenly blue. 
To the better country, the upper day. 
And, I wish I was going too. 

JEAN INGELOW. 
[178] 



JUNE 
Twenty -sixth Day 

LOCKHART, I may have but a minute to 
speak to you. My dear, be a good man ; 
be virtuous, be religious, be a good man is my 
wish ; nothing else will give you any comfort when 
you come to lie here. 

WALTER SCOTT'S DYING WORDS. 

Let star-wheels and angel-wings, with their holy 

winnowings 

Keep beside you all your way, 
Lest in passion you should dash with a blind and 

heavy crash, . 
Up against the thick bossed shield of God's 

judgment in the field. mrs. browning. 

From the rising of the sun to its going down may 
you scatter seeds of kindness, so that when the 
great reaping-time comes your harvest may be 
abundant and blessed. '' The roots of heavenly 
joy in this life and the next are to be found in 
having plenty to know, to love and to do.'* 

Things can never go wrong if we keep courage and 
the buoyancy of hope. May these lift you over 
life's rough places. 

[179] 



JUNE 

Twenty -seventh Day 

A70UR memories be happy ones ! 

Old time is ever on the wing, 

How swallow-swift he flies ! 
Soon life will be to you and me 

A chain of memories. 

These memories, I think, don't you ? 

'Twere well if we could hide 
The gray and sad and keep the glad 

And sweet ones all outside. 

Yet that we know could never be. 

Perhaps 'tis for the best, 

We can but pray that bright ones may 

Out-number all the rest. 

May envy never dare 

To pour one baleful poison- drop 

Into thy cup of trust ; 
And while the lark sings sweet in air 

May hhes white and roses fair 

Spring from Hfe's arid dust. 

[i8o] 



JUNE 
Twenty-eighth Day 

Palabras Carinosas. 

GOOD -NIGHT ! I have to say good-night 
To such a host of peerless things ! 
Good-night unto the fragile hand 
All queenly with its weight of rings ; 
Good-night to fond, uphfted eyes, 
Good-night to chestnut braids of hair, 
Good-night unto the perfect mouth, 
And all the sweetness nestled there — 
The snowy hand detains me, then 
I'll have to say Good-night again ! 

But there will come a time, my love, 

When, if I read our stars aright, 

I shall not linger by this porch 

With my adieus. Till then. Good-night ! 

You wish the time were now ? And I. 

You do not blush to wish it so ? 

You would have blushed yourself to death 

To own so much a year ago — 

What, both these snowy hands ! ah, then 
I'll have to say Good- night again ! 

THO:vIAS BAILEY ALDRICH. 
[I8i] • 



o 



JUNE 

Twenty -ninth Day 

FOR boyhood's time in June, 
Crowding years in one brief noon ! 

WHITTIER. 



Voices, loving voices, whispering through the years, 
When the heart is happy, when the heart has tears. 
Stay with us forever, voices of the past. 
Till when all is over heaven shall dawn at last ! 

F. E. WEATHERLY. 

Let us think on those that have loved us, dear. 

The friends who are far away. 

Soft be the sleep of their pleasant hours 
And calm be the seas they roam ! 

May the way they travel be strewn with 
flowers. 
Till it bring them in safety home ! 

HORACE TWISS. 

Few are the hearts that have proved the truth 

Of their early affection's vow, 
And let those few, the beloved of youth. 

Be dear in their absence now. 

HORACE TWISS. 

[182] 



JUNE 
Thirtieth Day 

AH ! happy day, refuse to go ! 
Hang in the heavens forever so ! 
Forever in mid-afternoon, 
Ah, happy day of happy June. 
Pour out thy sunshine on the hill, 
The piney woods with perfume fill, 
And bring across the singing sea 
Land-scented breezes that shall be. 

Ah, happy day refuse to go ! 
Hang in the heavens forever so ! 
Forever let thy tender mist 
Lie hke dissolving amethyst 
Deep in the distant dales, and shed 
Thy mellow glory overhead ! 

HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. 

Hence, kindly wish, fly away, fly away, 
Find me the one I think of to-day ! 
Fly then no longer, but Unger and say 
" Health be yours, joy be yours^ 
Ever and aye." 

L183] 




JULY 
First Day 

OH, sing a little song of trust 
Whose notes are clear and true, 
And tell to every listening soul 
The Saviour died for you ; 
A song is but a little thing, 

But on its wings of love 
The weary soul may rise from earth 
And find its rest above. 

Oh, do some little act of love 

To help a world in need. 
Twill blossom as a fair, white flower 

Grows from a tiny seed ; 
It may be but a little drop 

Drawn from a living spring. 
But blest are they whose willing hands 

Such heavenly comfort bring ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

[184] 




•^' 



' J^"^ 



I i^ ^ universe raises, 
Ir^ oly and Inpinil-e! Fahlper and God ! 

Frances Hicllt'X' Hax'crqul. 



h- 



M 



JULY 
Second Day 

AY your life be clean as morning roses newly 
washed with dew. shakspeare. 



Like angels' thoughts, all pure and white, 

May scented liHes grow ; 
And glittering poppies, richly dight. 
With large- eyed daisies — silvern bright — 
Dance for thee in the sunny light 

When gentle breezes blow. 

HELEN WAITHMAN. 

I wish thee. the beauty 

That ne'er can depart, 
The charm of expression 

Which springs from the heart. 

To a Lily. 

Go bow thy head in gentle spite. 

Thou lily white. 
For she who spies thee waving here. 
With thee in beauty can compare 

As day with night. 

JAMES MATHEWS LEGARE. 
[185] 



JULY 
Third Day 

T/" EEP to your high ideals ! 

Would that we might live upwards, and grow to 
our fullest stature 1 Would that our lives might 
be high-vaulted chambers, giving us room to grow 
as high as our most lofty ideal ! How many lives 
are cramped and dwarfed, and become Ibw and 
mean in aim, through looking downward ! The 
soul expands with the expanding thought. But 
the heart dwindles in contact with small things 
and narrow interests ; but when brought into har> 
mony with great ideas, striving for great ends, 
with strong feeling excited and pouring upon the 
altar of success the most costly and precious sac- 
rifices, then the human heart . . . enlarges to the 
compass of the broadest principles. 

G. M. ROBESON. 

If thou hast lost that lodestar's pure, ethereal 
gleaming. 
And if thy life is grown to dull, unbroken gray. 
Pray thou for death — or pray across thy sullen 
dreaming 
Flash from that splendor-world once more one 
trembling ray. charlotte w. thurston. 

[i86] 



JULY 
Fourth Day 

GOD bless the stars and stripes ! 
Go ring the bells and fire the guns 
And fling the starry banner out ; 

Shout " Freedom" till your lisping ones 
Give back their cradle shout. whittier. 



The birthday of our country ! May the glow of 
patriotism warm our hearts and the love of coun- 
try inspire our souls to-day. Man could wish no 
better birthright than that which has been handed 
down to us. May we guard it jealously, each one 
loyal to God, and home and native land ! 



Our Fathers' God, to Thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To Thee we sing ; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light. 
Protect us by thy might. 

Great God our King ! 

S. F. SMITH. 

[187] 



I 



JULY 
Fifth Day 

F wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. 

NURSERY BALLAD. 

Oh, that this too, too soUd flesh would melt. 
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew ; 
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable 
Seem to me all the uses of this world ! 

SHAKSPEARE. 



Oh, for a lodge in a garden of cucumbers ! 

Oh, for an iceberg or two at control ! 
Oh, for a vale that at mid-day the dew cumbers, 

Oh, for a pleasure trip to the north pole. 

Oh, that this cold world were twenty times colder ! 

(That's irony red-hot, it seemeth to me,) 
Oh, for a turn of its dreaded cold shoulder ! 

Oh, what a comfort an ague would be ! 

Oh, for a grotto, frost-lined and rill-riven. 
Scooped in the rock under cataracts vast ! 

Oh, for a winter of discontent, even ! 
Oh, for wet blankets judiciously cast ! 

ROSSITER JOHNSON. 
[188] 



JULY 
Sixth Day 

I WOULD be a merman bold ; 
I would sit and sing the whole of the day ; 
I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power ; 
But at night I would roam abroad and play 
With the mermaids in and out of the rocks 
Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower. 

TENNYSON. 

I would be a mermaid fair ; 
I would sing to myself the whole of the day ; 
With a comb of pearl, I would comb my hair ; 
And still as I combed I would sing and say 
"Who is it loves me? who loves not me? " 

TENNYSON. 

Wishing to be with the light leaves shaking, 
Or stones on some desolate highway breaking j 
Far up on the hills, where no foot surprises 
The dew as it falls, or the dust as it rises ; 
To be couched with the beast in its torrid lair, 
Or drifting on ice with the polar bear, 
With the weaver at work at his quiet loom ; 
Anywhere, anywhere, out of this room ! 

DORA GREENWELL. 

[189] 



JULY 
Seventh Day 

IF thou shouldst bid thy friend farewell, — 
But for one night though that farewell 
should be — 
Press thou his hand in thine ; how canst thou tell 
How far from thee 

Fate or Caprice may lead his feet 

Ere that to-morrow come? Men have been 
known 
Lightly to turn the corner of a street, 
And days have grown 

To months, and months to lagging years. 

Before they looked in loving eyes again. 
Parting, at best, is underlaid with tears, — 
With tears and pain. 

Therefore, lest sudden death should come between, 

Or time, or distance, clasp with pressure true 
The palm of him who goeth forth. Unseen 
Fate goeth too ! 

Yea, find thou alway time to say 

Some earnest word betwixt the idle talk. 
Lest with thee, henceforth, night and day, 
Regret should walk. 

MARY EVELYN MOORE DAVIS. 
[190] 



M 



JULY 
Eighth Day 

AY your body be a fit temple for the living 
God ! 



Oh, mayst thou empty all thyself of self, 

Like to a shell dishabited. 
That God may find thee on the ocean-shelf 

And say, " This is not dead " ; 

And fill thee with Himself instead. 

T. E. BROWN. 

How we should wish for the indwelHng of the 
Spirit ! And it may be ours if we will. But how ? 
I think we must settle it that, while not the exclu- 
sive means of spiritual life, the earnest study of 
the Word of God is essential to it. 
" Come apart into the desert and rest awhile." 
Roam in the sacred gardens of this blessed Book. 
Walk with God in the mountain-tops of this fair 
land of Truth, and holy thoughts will possess your 
mind. You will become conscious that there are 
heavenly helps for all noble enterprises in which 
you engage, and that help comes from God within 
you. 

ri9i] 



JULY 
Ninth Day 

IF I had a noble house 
Like to my neighbor's there, 
Velvet over the floor, 

Oaken and marble stair, 
Then would I scatter gifts. 

Then should the sad grow gay, 
Then would I gladly stand. 

Stand in the door and say : 
" Enter, my dear Lord's poor, 

Wide shall my portals be. 
Here is a banquet spread, — 

Enter and sup with me." 

Answered a low sweet voice, 

" Here is a saying true : 
Every willing hand 

Findeth its work to do." 

Smihng a wise, sweet smile 

Added my earnest friend, 
" Dreaming of something great. 

There shall the greatness end." 

MRS. GEORGE ARCHIBALD. 
[192J 



JULY 
Tenth Day 

OH, be thou blest with all that Heaven can 
send — 
Long health, long youth, long pleasure, and a 
friend. pope. 

He that wishes for a friend, wishes well ; and a 
friend, sometimes, may be made from very un- 
promising material, — indifferent acquaintances, 
or even those who openly dislike us, may be 
won over by love, tact, and gentlehood. And 
this is the greatest triumph of friendship. Some 
of the closest and most constant friendships have 
grown from such unpromising conditions as these. 
But always upon one side or the other there was 
the kindly disposition and the gentle manner. 

Oh, may we walk the world, so that our love 

Burn Hke a blessed beacon light, beautiful 
Upon the walls of life's surrounding dark ! 

Heart is a hope place and home is a heart place, 
and she sadly mistaketh who would exchange the 
happiness of home for anything less than heaven. 
I would find my hope in you, and may you find 
your home in me. 

[193] 



I 



JULY 
Eleventh Day 

WOULD that our eyes 
Might be open to the beauty of self-sacrifice ! 



When we lay our heart's treasure upon the altar 
of devotion, or love, or duty, the sacred incense 
that mounts upward lifts our own souls with it, 
and we are that much nearer heaven. May this 
conception of duty be yours ! 

Oh, if in answer to our prayers. 

Heaven might send down some angel, 

Some denizen of courts above 
Bearing Faith's bright evangel. 

We then might see with star- clear eyes 

The good that's born of sacrifice. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

Oh, would our leaves of life were fair 
With faithful writing everywhere. 
Oh, would that love shone clear and true 
Each plan and purpose ever through. 
That zeal did never faint and tire. 
And hope ne'er waned to low desire. 

[194] 



JULY 

Twelfth Day 

A LITTLE while (my life is almost set !) 
I fain would pause along the downward way, 
Musing an hour in this sad sunset ray, 
While, Sweet ! our eyes with tender tears are wet ; 
A little hour I fain would linger yet. 

A little while I fain would linger here : 
Behold ! who knows what strange mysterious bars 
'Twixt souls that love, may rise in other stars ? 
Nor can love deem the face of death is fair ; 
A little while I still would linger here. 

A little while, when light and twilight meet ; 
Behind, our broken years ; before, the deep 
Weird wonder of the last unfathomed sleep ; 
A little while I still would clasp thee. Sweet ; 
A little while when light and twilight meet. 

A little while I fain would Hnger here ; 
Behold ! who knows what soul- dividing bars 
Earth's faithful loves may part in other stars ? 
Nor can love deem the face of death is fair : 
A little while I still would Hnger here. 

PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE. 
[195] 



M 



JULY 
Thirteenth Day 

AY you have fruit from trees of your own 
planting ! 



As the flowers of the earth that are fair are 
fairer when love sends them to us, and as the 
fruits of the field are good, but better and per- 
fumed with a rarer flavor when they are symbols 
of another's thought, so may all the gifts which 
we work out ourselves, the things which we pluck 
from the boughs of life by our own industries, 
seem doubly sacred to us as gifts from God. 
And this be our joy, that whatever gift we re- 
ceive blesses not alone in the thing it is itself, 
but in the word which it brings of remembrance 
from God. beecher. 

May the showers and the sunshine their blessings 

impart. 
That your fruit may be mellow and sound at the 

heart ! 

Mayst thou learn this, that man is a plant, not 
fixed in the earth, nor immovable, but heavenly ; 
whose head, rising as it were from a root up- 
wards, is turned towards heaven. plutarch. 
[196] 



M 



JULY 

Fourteenth Day 

AY you be a light bearer ! 



There are some people, and I hope you may 
be among them, who go up and down the dark 
ways of life swinging the lantern of hope, and 
gladness, making ^ the path bright for all who 
follow them. 

It is a beautiful thing to be a light bearer — to 
give that which makes easier and safer journeying 
for those who are going the same way. So, give 
out your light freely, and help the great world 
onward. 

Give ! as the morning that flows out of heaven ; 
Give ! as the waves when their channel is riven ; 
Give ! as the air and the sunshine are given ; 

Lavishly, utterly, carelessly give. 
Not the waste drops of thy cup overflowing. 
Not the faint sparks of thy hearth ever glowing. 
Not a pale bud from the June rose's blowing. 

Give as He gave thee, who gave thee to live. 

ROSE TERRY COOKE. 
[197] 



JULY 

Fifteenth Day 

Let Me Go Over, 

O Paradise ! O Paradise ! 
Who doth not crave thy rest ? 
Who would not seek the happy land 
Where they that loved are blest ? 
Where loyal hearts and true 

Stand ever in the light, 
All rapture through and through 
In God's most holy sight. 

O Paradise ! O Paradise ! 

The world is growing old ; 
Who would not be at rest and free 

Where love is never cold? 
O Paradise ! O Paradise ! 

I greatly long to see 
The special place my dearest Lord 

In love prepares for me. 

Lord Jesus, King of Paradise, 

Oh keep me in Thy love, 
And guide me to that happy land 

Of perfect rest above ! faber. 

[198] 



JULY 
Sixteenth Day 

COME not again, dear child. If thou 
By any chance couldst break that vow 
Of silence, at thy last hour made ; 
If to this grim life, unafraid, 
Thou couldst return, and melt the frost 
Wherein thy bright limbs' power was lost ; 
Still would I whisper — since so fair 
The silent comradeship we share — 
Yes, whisper 'mid the unbidden rain 
Of tears : '^ Come not ! Come not back again ! ' 

GEORGE p. LATHROP. 

A little time for laughter, 
A little space for song — 

And tears that hurry after, — 
Ere we too go along. 

Like ripples on the river. 

As light on wind-swept grain, 
So passes our endeavor : 

We go, nor come again. 
Then make me, O Eternal, 

Still, as Thy forces are : 
We thrive as grasses vernal. 

We fade as fades the star. 

GEORGE MELVILLE UPTON. 

[199] 



L 



JULY 
Seventeenth Day 

OVE her, fairies, — crown her, fays, 
Give her peaceful nights and days. 



Look over your shoulder, my lassie. 

When the moon in the heavens you see. 

And make you the wish that seems sweetest — 
And I pray you to wish then for me. 

New moon, true moon, sailing through the sky. 
Won't you seek my true love as you're gliding by? 

Tell him that I'm waiting here beside the gate, 
Tell him, pray, to hasten, ere it groweth late. 

New moon, true moon, I've a wish to-night. 
Stoop the while I tell you so you'll hear aright ; 

Stoop, so none can see you, for I fain would tell 
What I wish for truly while I'm 'neath your spell. 

New moon, true moon, here's the magic word. 
Here's the wish of wishes (sweetest ever heard), 

'Tis that my true lover, true shall always be. 
And his heart beat only evermore for me ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[200] 



JULY 
Eighteenth Day 

ADIEU, dear, amiable youth ! 
Your heart can ne'er be wanting, 
May prudence, fortitude, and truth 

Erect your brow undaunting ; 
In ploughman phrase, " God send you speed " 

Still daily to grow wiser. 
And may you better reck the rede 
Than ever did the Adviser. 

ROBERT BURNS. 

Oh, for an hour of youthful joy 1 
Give back my twentieth Spring ! 

I'd rather laugh, a bright-haired boy, 
Than reign a gray-beard king ! 

HOLMES. 

I would not be ambitious in my wish 

To wish myself much better : yet for you 

I would be trebled twenty times myself; 

A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times 

more rich 
That, only to stand high in your account, 
I might in virtue, livings, friends. 
Exceed account : but the full sum of me 

Is sum of nothing. shakspeare. - 

[201] 



I 



JULY 
Nineteenth Day 

WISH you the bath of sleep ! 

Soft be thy slumbers, 

Rude cares depart, 
Visions in numbers. 

Cheer thy young heart ! 
Dream on while bright hours 

And fond hopes remain, 
Cares all be banished, 

Sorrow and pain. Oi,D song. 

As some flowers at night-time fold their leaves 
around them, guarding their golden hearts against 
careless intrusion, so may your heart be closed 
against thoughts of evil. 

Dear eyes, forbear to weep. 

Seeing where heavy-lidded sleep 

Stands at the threshold of the day, 
Ready to bear thy woes away. 

Sad heart, forbear to break. 

Knowing that even the violets wake 

And seek the spring with wistful eyes 
Under the gray of winter skies. 

MARY CATHARINE BISHOP. 
[202] 



JULY 

Twentieth Day 

MAY you look through nature up to nature's 
God! 

It's O my heart, my heart, 

To be out in the sun and sing ! 
To sing and shout in the fields about, 

In the balm and the blossoming ! 
The leaves laugh low in the wind, 

I^augh low, with the wind at play ; 
And the odorous call of the flowers all 

Entice my soul away ! 
For oh, but the w^orld is fair, is fair — 

And oh, but the world is sweet ! 
I will out in the gold of the blossoming mould. 

And sit at the Master's feet. 
And the love my heart would speak 

I will fold in the lily's rim. 
That the lips of the blossoms, more pure and meek, 

May offer it up to Him. 
Then sing in the hedgerow green, O thrush ! 

O skylark, sing in the blue ! 
Sing loud, sing clear, that the King may hear. 

And my soul shall sing with you ! 

IDA D. COOLBRITH. 

■ [203] 



JULY 
Twenty-first Day 

A LITTLE maid sang low, 
" I wish you all things sweet, 
May summer flowers grow 
About your happy feet.'* 

And straightway seeing her exceedynge comeli- 
nesse little winged creatures named Wyshes did 
fly to her and there abyde. 

Bedouin Song, 

. . . Look from thy window and see 
My longing and my pain ; 
I lie on the sands below, 

And I faint in thy disdain. 
Let the night- winds touch thy brow 
With the heat of thy burning sigh. 
And melt thee to hear the vow 
Of a love that shall not die 

Till the sun grows cold, 
And the stars are old, 
And the leaves of the Judgment 
Book unfold ! 

bayard taylor. 

[204] 



JULY 

Twenty -second Day 

^\70UR faith bear you up ! 

Be like the bird, that, halting in her flight 
Awhile on boughs too slight, 
Feels them give way beneath her and yet sings, 
Knowing that she hath wings, victor hugo. 

Strong, and true, and brave, and earnest-hearted 
God will bless thee, darling ! — Go thy way : 

Choicest gifts and holiest benedictions 
Wait to crown thy future day by day. 

Work awaits thee — care and toil for others — 

Self-denial, stern affliction's rod, 
Joy at length, the fruit of patient waiting. 

Christian graces, and the peace of God. 

CELIA M. BURR. 

And if sometimes the way be rough and steep. 

Be heavy with the grief He sends to me, 
If at my waking I would only weep. 

Let me remember these are things to be, 
To work His blessed will until He come 
To take my hand and lead me safely home. 

A. D. F. RANDOLPH. 

[205] 



JULY 
Twenty-third Day 

OH ! may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In minds made better by their presence, live 
In pulses stirred to generosity, 
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 
Of miserable aims that end with self. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 

The wish for an immortality of influence can only 
live in noble minds. It is not the thought of 
self that shapes the wish, it is the finite soul 
striving to link itself with the infinite. It is the 
longing that the world may be made better for 
our having lived in it. Such wishes are prayers. 

He who would make a golden gate must bring 
a nail daily. 

That is a noble time, a wonderful and exalting 
time in any of our lives when into everything 
that we are doing enters the Spirit of God, and 
thenceforth moving ever up toward the God to 
whom it belongs carries our life with it. May 
such times come to us often. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

[206] 



JULY 
Twenty-fourth Day 

FRET not, poor heart ; the sorrows sore 
That crush thy Hfe thy Saviour bore 
Once for thy sake ; yea, this and more. 
God's way is best ; 
Then trust and rest. 

ANNA HOLYOKE HOWARD. 



Some one has hurt your heart and made you grieve ; 

The day has been too dark without the sun ; 
Something has been too hard ; but oh ! beheve 

Others have suffered just as you have done. 

MARGARET ROX. 

I try as much as I can to let nothing distress me, 
and to take everything that happens as for the 
best. I beheve that this is a duty, and that we 
sin in not doing so. For, in short, the reason 
why sins are sins is only because they are con- 
trary to the will of God ; it is plain, it appears to 
me, that when He discovers His will to us by 
events, it would be a sin not to conform our- 
selves to it. PASCAL. 

[207] 



JULY 

Twenty-fifth Day 

I LIKE the chaliced lilies, 
The heavy Eastern lilies, 
The gorgeous tiger-lilies 
That in our garden grow ! 

For they are tall and slender ; 

Their mouths are dashed with carmine, 

And when the wind sweeps by them, 

On their emerald stalks, 

They bend so proud and graceful ; — 

They are Circassian women, 

The favorites of the Sultan, 

Adown our garden walks ! 

And when the rain is falling, 

I sit beside the window 

And watch them glow and glisten, — 

How they burn and glow ! 

Oh, for the burning lihes, 

The tender Eastern lilies, 

The gorgeous tiger-lilies 

That in our garden grow ! 

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. 
. [208] 



M 



JULY 
Twenty-sixth Day 

AY good luck knock at your door ! 



Oh, once in each man's life, at least, 

Good luck knocks at his door ; 
Now may you open to this knock 

And never hunger more. 
But while the loitering idler waits 

Good luck beside his fire, 
The bold heart storms at fortune's gates, 

And conquers its desire. 
For here's the secret that doth lurk 

In every grand life's plan ; — 
His work, it was a man's work ; 

He did it like a man. 

LEWIS J. BATES. 

Ere I am old, oh, let me give 

My life in learning how to live ! 

Then shall I meet with willing heart 

An early summons to depart ; 

Or find my lengthened days consoled 

By God's sweet peace when I am old. 

CAROLINE A. BRIGGS. 
[209] 



L 



JULY 

Twenty -seventh Day 

AY hold of Christ with both your poor 
empty hands ! Elizabeth prentiss. 



Let me keep on, abiding and unfearing, 

Thy will always 
Through a long century's ripening fruition 

Or a short day's ; 
Thou canst not come too soon ; and I can wait 

If Thou come late. 

SUSAN COOLIDGE. 

God sets some souls in shade, alone ; 
They have no daylight of their own : 
Only in lives of happier ones 
They see the shine of distant suns. 

God knows. Content thee with thy night. 
Thy greater heaven hath grander light. 
To-day is close ; the hours are small ; 
Thou sitt'st afar, and hast them all. 

Lose the less joy that doth but blind ; 
Reach forth a larger bliss to find. 
To-day is brief: the inclusive spheres 
Rain raptures of a thousand years. 

ADELINE BUTTON TRAIN WHITNEY. 
[210] 



JULY 

Twenty -eighth Day 

WOULD you wish the hands upon Hfe's dial 
to go backward? 

Make no wish — I overhear 
Thine unspoken thoughts as clear 
As thy mortal ear can catch 
Close-brought tickings of a watch. 

'Tis to live again, remeasuring 

Youth's years, like a scene rehearsed, 
In thy second life-time treasuring 

Knowledge from the first. 
Hast thou felt, poor self-deceiver ! 

Life's career so void of pain. 
As to wish its fitful fever 

New begun again ? 

Wouldst thou live again Love's trouble — 
Friendship's death-dissevered ties ; 

Toil to grasp or miss the bubble 
Of ambitious prize? 

Make no wish — I overhear 

Thine unspoken thoughts so clear ; 

Make not the untold request 

Now revolving in thy breast. 

CAIVIPBELL. 

[211] 



JULY 

Twenty-ninth Day 

IF I could see with a midge's eye, 
Or think with a midge's brain, 
I wonder what I'd say of the world, 

With all its joy and pain. 
Would my seven brief hours of mortal life 

Seem long as seventy years, 
As I danced in the flickering sunshine 

Among my tiny peers? 
Should I feel the slightest hope or care 

For the midges yet to be ? 
Or think I had died before my turn 

If I died at half-past three 
Instead of living till set of sun 

On the breath of the summer wind ? 
Or deem that the world was made for me 

And all of my little kind ? 
Perhaps if I did I'd know as much 

Of nature's mighty plan, 
And what it meant for good or ill 

As that larger midge — a man ! 



[212] 



L 



JULY 
Thirtieth Day 

ET not the glamour of our wishes cheat 
us of our present joys. 



If we knew the woe and heartache 

Waiting for us down the road, 
If our Hps could taste the wormwood, 

If our backs could feel the load, 
Would we waste the day in wishing 

For a time that ne'er can be? 
Would we wait with such impatience 

For our ships to come from sea? 

I wish not a life for my dear ones. 

All radiant, as others have done, 
But that life may have just enough shadow 

To temper the glare of the sun. 

I would pray God to guard them from evil. 
But my prayer would bound back to myself. 

Ah ! a seraph may pray for a sinner, 
But a sinner must pray for himself. 

CHARLES M. DICKINSON. 



[213] 



JULY 

Thirty -first Day 

CHILDREN always turn to the light; oh, that 
grown-up men would do likewise ! 

JULIUS HARE. 

Lead, Kindly Light ! amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead thou me on ; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home ; 

Lead Thou me on. 
Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene : one step enough for me. 

CARDINAL NEWMAN. 

In all the steps that are yet to be taken, in all 
the experiences of hfe, in heart-troubles, in pas- 
sions to be borne, in trials, in sorrows, in heart- 
aches, in yearnings and longings, in temptations 
and struggles, in downfalls or uprising victories, 
may we have the sense of God with us in provi- 
dence, God with us in spirit, and in our hearts, 
dwelling with us as friend with friend, beecher. 

O solemn human life 

Whose nobler longings bid all conflicts cease. 

Grant but one day's deep peace 

Beyond the utmost rumor of all strife. 

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON. 

[214] 




'V^< 



f°- 



»,a«» 



resh a n d s i n CI 

upon H-pe shormless l^e'CilpK 
n H-pe deep calm op love 

and everlasHna licil^'"' 

France^ i^idley Hm'Cixy 




AUGUST 



M 



First Day 

AY your forehead touch the clouds ! 



Why fret thee, soul, 

For thmgs beyond thy small control ? 
Do but thy part, and thou shalt see 
Heaven will have charge of these and thee. 
Sow thou the seed and wait in peace 

The Lord's increase. 

KATE PUT^NAM OSGOOD. 

Can anything be so elegant, as to have few wishes 
and serve them one's self? Parched corn, and a 
house with one apartment, that I may be free of 
all perturbations, that I may be serene and docile 
to what the mind shall speak, and girt and road- 
ready for the lowest mission of knowledge or 
goodness, is frugality for gods and heroes. 

EMERSON. 

[215] 



AUGUST 
Second Day 

I WISH I could tell what you say, O rose, 
I wish I could tell what you say, 
For I know there's a secret that's hid in 
your heart, 
A thought that might cheer my long day. 

We sail toward evening's lonely star 

That trembles in the tender blue ; 
One single cloud, a dusky bar, 

Burnt with dull carmine through and through. 
Slow smouldering in the summer sky, 

Lies low along the fading west. 
How sweet to watch its splendors die, 

Wave-cradled thus and wind-caressed ! 

How like a dream are earth and heaven, 

Star-beam and darkness, sky and sea ; 
Thy face, pale in the shadowy even. 

Thy quiet eyes that gaze on me ! 
Oh, realize the moment's charm. 

Thou dearest ! we are at life's best, 
Folded in God's encircling arm. 

Wave-cradled thus and wind-caressed. 

CELIA THAXTER. 
[216] 



M 



AUGUST 
Third Day 

KY your pillow be soft ! 



If I might only have my wish, — 

Come my last hour soon or late, — 
I would not on the hither shore 

Of the mysterious ocean wait, 
Watching the shadows gather in. 

Hearing the nearing billows beat. 
Feeling the tide that knows no ebb 

Wash higher o'er my chilling feet. 

Dear life ! sweet life ! full life ! when I 
Must render thee to Him who gave, 

I'd yield thee up, unterrified 

By thoughts of death-throe and the grave. 

If I might only have my wish ! 

The wind should blow fresh from the sea ; 
Between me and the conscious stars 

Swing pale blooms of the locust tree ; 
With tender thoughts of friends beloved, 

And humble hope of sins forgiven. 
My prayer half said, I'd fall asleep, 

And say, " Amen ! " at dawn in heaven. 

MARION HARLAND. 
[217] 



H 



AUGUST 
Fourth Day 

OW pleasant a thing is wishing — how noble 
a thing is resolving. 



The first foundation of any spiritual work is a 
detached heart. Neither birth, fortune, talent, 
nor genius exceeds in value a detached heart. 

LACORDAIRE. 

The time when wishes had their power to cheat 

Is past, dear friend, for me. As in old days 

So, still at times, they throng their ancient ways 

And trail their shining robes before my feet, 

Or stand, half-lifted to their native skies 

By the soft oval of white arms, with eyes 

Closing on looks unutterably sweet. 

Then the grim truth beside me will arise 

And slay them, and their beauty is no more — 

No more their beauty — saving such as dies 

Into the marble of mute lips, or flies 

With the swift light of dying smiles 

Before the eye that strains to watch can tell, for 

tears. 
How passing fair they shone, how dusk have grown 

the years. david gray. 

[218] 



AUGUST 
Fifth Day 

Know Thyself, 

KNOW thyself in thy moral nature, for therein 
is happiness here and hereafter. Study thy 
heart, for in so doing thou shalt then know the 
source of all motives and learn to cherish the holy 
while checking the unholy. Problems touching 
the unseen are here. Many are trying to solve 
them. Many have heeded the Delphic inscription 
and crowned their days with a halo of glory that 
will never cease to shine. j. l. harvey. 



So here hath been dawning another blue day ! 
Oh, mayst thou not let it slip useless away ! 

Out of Eternity this new day was born ; 
Into Eternity at night will return. 

Behold it aforetime no eye ever did 
So soon it forever from all eyes is hid. 

Here hath been dawning another blue day ; 
Think, wilt thou let it slip useless away ? 

CARLYLE. 

[219] 



AUGUST 
Sixth Day 

A FTER the conflict yours be the victor's song ! 

Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. 

s. JOHN 14 : i8. 

Lord ! if to-morrow's rising sun 

Proclaim a battle day for me, 
I only ask that setting sun 

May find me still at peace with Thee : 
Give me the field at eventide, 

'Mid song of victory. 

Lord ! if the shadows, lurking deep, 

Some unknown harm from me would hide. 

Take Thou my hand, lest in the dark 
The space should grow so wide 

That never bridging of my prayers 
Could reach the other side. 

Lord ! if these treasures which I have 
Would keep me still in greater need, 

Loosen the clinging of my hold 
Lest they my growth impede ; 

Take, then, my empty hands in Thine, 
iVnd they are full indeed. 

JULIET MARSH. 
[220] 



AUGUST 

Seventh Day 

MAY thine own soul commend thee in thy 
ways; 
Faint not nor swerve from thine accepted aim. 

Be as a little child, who with one hand holds fast 
by its father and with the other gathers fruit along 
the way. 

So may you, gathering and handling the goods of 
this world with one hand, always with the other 
hold fast the hand of your Heavenly Father, turn- 
ing often to see if your occupations and actions 
are pleasing to Him. 

May we be patient ! For severe afflictions 

Not from the ground arise, 
But oftentimes celestial benedictions 
Assume a dark disguise. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Oh may each hour and moment bring 

A sweeter, fuller blossoming, 
And all life's plans and purpose tend 

Through patient work to perfect end. 

[221] 



M 



AUGUST 
Eighth Day 

A Wish with a Book. 

AY hope be lost in happiness, 
And wishing in possessing. 



I send you a book, dear, this season, 

For everything else seemed so small, 
I had such a volume of wishes 

No letter could hold them at all. 
I wish you, oh, what don't I wish you 

Of everything lovely and sweet ! 
May sunshine be always around you 

And pleasant the paths of your feet. 

These little winged messengers, flitting 

The leaves of my book through and through. 
Are laden with love and remembrance 

And greetings all tender and true ; 
Turn over my volume again, dear. 

And read 'twixt the lines, for you may. 
Whatever is brightest and fairest. 

That same do I wish you to-day. 

[222] 



AUGUST 
Ninth Day 

PATIENCE ! have faith and thy prayer will be 
answered. longfellow. 

There is a patience so meek that it can make, 
even from hindrances or limitations, something 
that proves a real advantage ; temporary trials and 
defeats can be made stepping-stones to success. 

May wings of patience and love 

Come fluttering earthward from above 

To settle on Hfe's window sill 
And Hft your load of earthly ill 

Now the God of all hope fill you with all joy 
and peace in beheving. 

Deep is the flowing river tide 

And smooth, its waters run, 
The long weeds waver in the wind, 

And glisten in the sun. 
As fair and shining be thy joys 

That come thy life to bless, 
As smooth may still thy pathway be, 

As deep thy happiness ! 

[223] 



I 



AUGUST 
Tenth Day 

WISH you a will of your own — but let it be 
well directed. 

Live your own life as conscience moves, 

And heart and brain define you, 
Resolved to fill alone the grooves 

Your attributes assign you ; 
Not heeding much, if self approves, 

That all the world malign you. 

Be grand in purpose, brave in act 

As you and truth decide it ; 
Swift in defence, slow in attack ; 

Then what the issue, bide it ! 
If opposition bar your track, 

Don't turn, but override it. 

Stand close to all, but lean on none, 

And, if the crowd desert you. 
Stand just as fearlessly alone 

As if a throng begirt you. 
And learn, what long the wise have known, 

Self- flight alone can hurt you. 

WILLIAM S. SHURTLEFF. 
[224] 



AUGUST 

Eleventh Day 

^' T WISH I might see just one fairy/* 
X Said dear little blue- eyed Marie — 

" Just look in the mirror, my darling," 
I answered, '' and tell what you see." 

Hast eaten of the fern-seed? 

Then mayst thou become invisible, and see the 

fairies dance ! 

How now, fair mistress ! I could wish that thou 
wouldst come with me to the greenwood. There, 
in the magic circle beneath the gray old oak wilt 
see the fairies dance. 

The fairies dance aboon the burn, 

The dews begin to fa,' 
Now wish your wish and shut your eyes 

And loud your true love ca\ 
The hours strike out ayont the twal, 

The fairies all are gone. 
But treasure close your secret wish 

'Twill come at break o' dawn. 

BURNS. 

[225] 



AUGUST 
Twelfth Day 

MAY deeds of mercy and of love 
Spring 'neath thy hand Hke flowers, 
To gem Hfe's dusty, arid ways 
And glad thy latest hours. 

Oh, go thou forth and do thy deed 

In forest and in town, 
Nor sigh for ease, while pain and need 

Are plucking at thy gown. 

And thus, when bitter turneth sweet 

And every heart is blest. 
Perchance to thee God's hand will mete 

His unimagined rest. 

KATHARINE LEE BATES. 

Look at the meaning and results of life's warfare 
as the victors do in heaven, and fight the fight as 
they fought it, inch by inch, without trying to 
guess the end through war and smoke. 
The battle is too close around for us to under- 
stand how the day is going — we are not high 
enough to see. church. 

[226] 



O' 



AUGUST 

Thirteenth Day 

^H ! may all the soul within you 
For the truth's sake go abroad ! 
Strike ! let every nerve and sinew 
Tell on ages, tell for God. 

RT. REV. A. CLEVELAND COXE. 

Wisdom's advance guard always occupies as out- 
posts what will be the camping-places of the 
hosts a generation afterward. Be you in the 
advance guard of humanity. 

DR. EDWARD A. TANNER. 

In light above thee bending 

May God be ever nigh, 
Whose love is never ending, 

The Dayspring from on high. 

What is excellent, 
As God lives is permanent ; 
Hearts are dust, hearts' loves remain ; 
Hearts' love will meet thee again. 

EMERSON. 

Be thou what thou seemest; live thy creed, 
Hold up to earth the torch divine ; 

Be what thou prayest to be made ; 
Let the great Master's step be thine ! 
[227] 



AUGUST 
Fourteenth Day 

WISH ye for idle show, 
In fashion's courts to bow? 
By my troth — no ! 
Does nature's lovely dress 
Touch ye with happiness? 
By my troth — yes ! 

Wish ye to dwell alway 

'Midst courtiers brave and gay? 

By my troth — nay ! 
Wish ye on country lea 
Happy and free to be ? 

By my troth — yea ! 

EMILY BARNARD. 

" How much for a bachelor ? Who wants to buy ? " 
In a wink every maiden responded, "I — I." 
In short, at a largely extravagant price 
The bachelors all were sold off in a trice ; 
And forty sweet maidens, some younger, some 

older. 
Each lugged an old bachelor home on her 

shoulder. 

SEBA SMITH. 
[228] 



M 



AUGUST 
Fifteenth Day 

AY you have songs in the night ! 



Blessed are they who can sing songs in the night. 
For nights do come, to us all ; and those who 
sing, instead of sighing, when shadows wait, shall 
the sooner come into the sunshine. Oh, that we 
might, each one of us, have a nightingale in our 
hearts to sing of the gospel of love. 

A. A. HOPKINS. 

How many times, mid icy chills. 

We've dreamed of summer blooms. 
And woke to snow on wintry hills 

And frost on early tombs : 
Our birds of song are silent long, 

The leafless groves are dumb ; 
But God's time is our summer time, — 

Our wish is sure to come. 

LEWIS J. BATES. 

Could we know how on the morrow. 

Brightness still would swell, 

Then, e'en through our nights of sorrow, 

Sweetest songs we well might borrow. 

Knowing all is well. m. c. o. 

[229] 



M 



AUGUST 
Sixteenth Day 

AY you never go backward ! 



There's a world moving sunward and Godward, 
Ye are called to the front and must lead, 

And this is your token of victory, — 
Good angels all bid you God-speed ! 

A hfe is successful or unsuccessful according to 
what it has wrought out, not only for its own 
happiness, but for the good of humanity. Not 
only the purest joy, but the deepest good lies in 
doing good to others. This happiness be yours ! 

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, 

From good to good the circling months move on ; 

Take what they hold before the year is gone. 

Hours are golden links, God's token 
Reaching heavenward one by one, 

Take them lest the charm be broken 
Ere thy pilgrimage be done. 

Give strenuous souls for belief and prayer, 
That stand in the dark at the lowest stair. 
While affirming of God He is certainly there. 

MRS. E. B. BROWNING. 

[230] 



AUGUST 
Seventeenth Day 

/^~^ATCH the flying moments ! 

As the most eager hand finds it impossible still 
to gather up the wasted gold of spendthrift youth, 
may Wisdom teach us to restrain our hand from 
flinging away that which can never be restored. 

We scatter seeds with idle hands 

And dream we ne'er shall see them more, 

But every moment wasted here, 

Will knock again at memory's door. 

SKp past, slip fast, 
Uncounted hours from first to last, 
Many hours till the last is past, — 

Many hours dwindling to one, — 
One hour whose die is cast. 

One lost hour gone. 

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 

I'd laugh to-day, to-day is brief, 
I would not wail for anything : 

I'd use to-day that cannot last, 
Be glad to-day and sing. 

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 

[231] 



AUGUST 
Eighteenth Day 

THE noblest wish is when one evermore 
Grows inly liker that he kneels before. 

Mayst thou have ample space 
For earnest toil and fruitful thought, 
For kindly word and generous deed, 
For binding up the hearts that bleed, 
For conquering self and sin, ^ 
For waxing strong within. 

SAMANTHA WHIPPLE SHOUP. 

Then a voice within his breast 
Whispered audible and clear, 
As if to the outward ear, 
" Do thy duty ; — that is best. 
Leave thy wish to God — 'tis best." 

There is but one lake on the face of the globe 
from which there is no outlet, and that is the 
Dead Sea, which receives much, but gives noth- 
ing. Such a lake is a perfect illustration of 
a soul whose efforts terminate upon itself — 
of a heart which absorbs but gives nothing 
forth. Attain what thou canst, both for mind 
and soul, but give freely of that knowledge to 

others. 

[232] 



R 



AUGUST 
Nineteenth Day 

UN if you like, but try to keep your breath, 
Work like a man, but don't be worked 
to death. holmes. 



Scowling and growling will make a man old ; 
Money and fame are at best beguiling. 
Don't be suspicious and selfish and cold — 
Try smiling. 

Happiness stands like a maid at your gate : 
Why should you think you will find her by roving ? 
Never was greater mistake than to hate — 
Try loving. 

JOHN EATON COOKE. 

No use to fret when the skies are gray. 
For the sun will be shining bright, some day ; 
No sense in wishing summer were here. 
When Christmas trees are soon to appear ; 
No discontent, no pout, no frown. 
Because the rain comes sweeping down ; 
No peevish look, for I always remember 
That May will come surely, after No-vember. 

w. B. A. 

[233] 



AUGUST 
Twentieth Day 

Martha, 

YEA, Lord ! — Yet some must serve. 
Not all with tranquil heart, 
Even at Thy dear feet, 
Wrapped in devotion sweet, 
May sit apart. 

Yea, Lord ! — Yet some must bear 

The burden of the day. 
Its labor and its heat. 
While others at Thy feet 

May muse and pray. 

Yea, Lord ! — Yet some must do 

Life's daily task-work ; some 
Who fain would sing, must toil, 
Amid earth's dust and moil. 

While lips are dumb. 

Yea, Lord ! — Yet even Thou 

Hast need of earthly care. 
I bring the bread and wine 
To Thee, O Guest Divine ! 

Be this my prayer ! 

JULIA C. R. DORR. 

[234] 



AUGUST 
Twenty -first Day 

PLEASE God to keep us growing 
Till the awful day of mowing. 

CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI. 

Growth always brings with it unrest. Every man 
has an ideal not only/^r, but of himself, an ideal 
widely different from what others accept as his 
developed character. If one's life corresponded 
with one's own ideal, this conflict would not exist. 
This is the significance of our endless self- 
questioning, and our ceaseless unrest. But the 
soul that is instinct with longing for a higher 
condition of vitality inevitably finds its way 
through the labyrinthine maze of quest to the 
goal of discovery. 

The whisper which at first persuades, becomes 
at last a full-voiced command. May this voice 
come to you and to me. mrs. john jay mccabe. 

Grow, sing and bloom undaunted ! 
A world so shadow-haunted 
Needs all your bursting splendor. 
Soft lights, and murmurs tender. 
The human want is pressing, 
O'ershadow it with blessing ! larcom. 
[23s] 



AUGUST 
Twenty-second Day 

A STAUNCH little ship that's all for you ! 
Its masts are gold, its sails are blue, 
And this is the cargo it brings : 
Joyful days with sunlight glowing, 
Nights where dreams hke stars are glowing, 
Take them, sweet, or they'll be going ! 
For they every one have wings. 

The second little ship it is all for me — 
A-sailing on the misty sea 

And out across the twilight gray. 
What is brought of gift and blessing 
Would not stay for my caressing, 

So it sails and sails away. 

The last ship, riding fair and high 
Upon the sea, is By and By. 

O Wind, be kind and gently blow ! 
Not too swiftly hasten hither, 
When she turns, sweet, you'll go with her — 
Sailing, floating, hither, thither — 

To what port I may not know. 

HARRIET F. BLODGETT. 
[236] 



M 



AUGUST 
Twenty -third Day 

AY buds you've lost on earth be flowers 
for you in heaven ! 



The heart learns its deepest lessons through love. 
How many home circles on earth are broken 
that the home circle in heaven may be complete ! 
All our hopes and longings follow the little trans- 
planted bud, and the heart's dearest wish is that 
it may see the perfect flower as it blooms in the 
heavenly garden. O ye whose hearts are bereft, 
look to the celestial blossoming-time ! 

The Little White Flower. 
A Httle white flower so pure and rare 
Once shyly grew by a garden wall. 
The Gardener turned from the roses tall 
To gather — long He had watched her there — 
The happy little white flower. 

But softer ever the breezes blew, 

And sweeter carols the songsters trilled ; 
Prayers more earnest the garden filled, 

Hearts grew cleaner and lives more true 
Because of the little white flower. 

FLORENCE SCOLLARD BROWN. 

[237] 



AUGUST 
Twenty -fourth Day 

DEAR Lord, of all the words of Thine 
Which for our comfort ring and shine 
Through sacred air, on sacred page. 
From sacred lips in every age. 
No one has brought such blessed cheer 
To me, — no one is half so dear. 
No one so surely cometh home 
To every soul, as this which from 
A pure heart wrung with sorrow came, 
'^ For He remembereth our frame." 

Dear Lord, to Thee a thousand years 
Are as a day ; with contrite tears 
One prayer I pray ! My little life, — 
Its good, its ill, its grief, its strife, — 
Oh, let it in Thy holy sight 
Like empty watches of a night. 
Forgotten be ! And of my name, 
Dear Lord, who knowest all our frame, 
Let there remain no memory 
Save of the thing I longed to be ! 

HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 



[238] 



AUGUST 
Twenty-fifth Day 

Take Joy Home, 

AND make a place in thy great heart for her, 
And give her time to grow and cherish her; 
Then will she come, and oft will sing to thee 
When thou art working in the furrows, aye. 
Or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn. 
It is a comely fashion to be glad ; 
Joy is the grace we say to God. 

JEAN INGELOW. 

Oh ! the blessed and wise little children, 

What sensible things they say ! 
When they can't have the things they wish for, 

They take others and cry, " Let's play ! " 

Oh ! the blessed and wise little children. 

What sensible things they say ! 
And we might be as happy as they are, 

If we would be happy this way. 

What odds, 'twixt not having and having, 
When we have lived out our day : 

Let us borrow the children's watchword — 
The magical watchword, " Let's play ! " 

HELEN HUNT JACKSON. 
[239] 



AUGUST 
Twenty ' sixth Day 

I SEND you my wishes in flower-cups ; I float 
them to you upon zephyrs; I echo them in 
bird-notes. 

My wish I laid in fragrant bed 

Of roses that were fairest, 
And folded up in that sweet cup, 

I gave it you, my dearest. 

You wore it for one little hour. 

Then threw it in the river. 
You never knew what bitter rue 

You gave unto the giver. 

I wish that the fairies on mid-summer eve 
Could bring, as in bright days of old, 
For my beautiful love their rarest gifts. 
And crown her with roses and gold. 

In long, bright, slanting lines they flew. 
With wreaths and garlands fair, 

And in the heart of each red rose 
Were wishes sweet and rare. 

They fluttered round, then flew away — 

Ah, me ! I would have staid for aye ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

[240J 



AUGUST 

Twenty -seventh Day 

A Birthday Good-night, 

PEACE and good-nighty dear heart ! 
The drowsy night wind falls and swells 
Like benisons from spirit bells, 
And low to nodding nature tells 
Peace and good-night ! 

Peace on thine eyelids, peace ! 

Though waking brings thee sighs and tears, 
Still hold thy hopes and sing at fears. 
For sighs and songs make up the years. 

Peace and good-night ! 

Peace in thy bosom, peace ! 

May life both smiles and tears bestow, 
As summer lights and shadows go. 
For happiest hearts can either know. 

Peace and good-night ! 

FRANK HAY WARD SEVERANCE. 

Be thou the rambow in the storms of life ! 
The evening breeze that smiles the clouds away, 
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray. 

[241I ^ 



AUGUST 

Twenty -eighth Day 

To My Na77iesake. 

CHILD of my friends ! For thee I crave 
What riches never brought, nor fame , 
To mortal longing gave, 
Heaven make thee better than thy name. 

My little girl is nested 

Within her tiny bed, 
With amber ringlets crested 

Around her dainty head ; 
She lies so calm and stilly. 

She breathes so soft and low, 
She calls to mind a lily 

Half-hidden in the snow. 

I kiss your wayward tresses, 

My drowsy little queen ; 
I know you have caresses 

From floating forms unseen. 
O, angels, let me keep her 

To kiss away my cares, 
This darling little sleeper, 

Who has my love and prayers ! 

SAMUEL MINTURN PECK. 
[242] 



M 



AUGUST 
Twenty-ninth Day 

AY your dreams carry you whithersoever you 
would be led. 



Oh, to be lost in the wind and the sun, 

To be one with the wind and the stream ! 
With never a care while the waters run — 

With never a thought in my dream. 
To be part of the robin's hlting call 

And part of the bobolink's rhyme, 
Lying close to the sky-thrush singing alone, 

And lapped in the cricket's chime. 

Oh, to live with these beautiful things ! 

With the lust and the glory of man 
Lost in the circuit of Spring-time suns — 

Submissive of earth and part of her plan — 
To he as the snake Hes content in the grass ! 

To drift as the clouds drift, effortless, free. 
Glad of the power that drives them on 

With never a question of wind or sea. 

HAMLIN GARLAND. 

Thank God for hfe. . . . 

I am alive, and that is beautiful. 

SUSAN COOLIDGE. 

[243] 



AUGUST 
Thirtieth Day 

" C^ WIDE-WINGED song," he said, 
V^ " Divinest, unto thee 

I bring my misery, 
And thou shalt healing shed ; 

Set thou my spirit free." 

Fluttered the feeble song. 
Unmeet its wing to bear 
One narrow human care, — 

Wings wont to soar so strong 
Under a world's despair. 

''Ah, what is it?" he cried, 

^' Unto the wide world's smart. 
Answers the wide world's heart ; 

Unheard the cries abide 

Of each small soul apart. 

"Ah, silence thou," he said, — 

" Most merciful, to thee 

I bring my misery. 
Be there no healing shed ; 

Clasp but my pain and me. 

Strong silence, Hke a sea, 
Flow deep above my head." 

WILLIAM WASHBURN SHINN. 
[244] 



M 



AUGUST 
Thirty-first Day 

AY the world deal gently with you ! 

O Father ! grant Thy love divine 
To make these mystic temples Thine ! 
When wasting age and wearying strife 
Have sapped the leaning walls of life, 
When darkness gathers over all, 
And the last tottering pillows fall, 
Take the poor dust Thy mercy warms ; 
And mould it into heavenly forms. 

HOLMES. 

Every one is a sower of seed on the field of life. 
The bright days of youth are the seed-time — 
the golden October days are" days of harvesting. 
As you approach your life's harvest may you 
glean only golden grain ! 

Go, dead summer, o'er the seas away, 

Autumn at her vespers now will kneel and pray. 

Sunlit vapors on the mountains stray, 

Red grows the round moon — summer goes awayo 

ROSE TERRY COOKE. 
[245] 



" That beauty still may live in thine or thee." 

Shakspeare. 



SEPTEMBER 
First Day 



B 



E of brave courage. 



Sing as you go, and let your song 
Be full of hope and gladness ; 
Sing out your noblest, bravest thought, 
With ne'er a hint of sadness ; 
Sing on and on and send the note 

Around the great world flying, 
There's nothing makes the heart so light 
As bravely, grandly trying. 

And tell, oh, tell this lesson true : 
Faint hearts are happy never ; 
And on the battle-field of life 
'Tis courage wins forever. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

[246] 








^f M 



^ "^f:^ 






wc. 






jys, 



liS;^ u n e fo r Th yse I p ^ 

hfpe music op my da^ 
nd open Thou my 

lips hhah I may show Thy praise. 

Frances Riclle\' Ila\crt]al. 



SEPTEMBER 
Second Day 

IT'S a long way round a life, sweetheart, 
It's a long and weary way, 
There is joy and woe, as around we go 

In the circle of each day : 
There are ups and downs, there are chance and 
change 
As the seasons swiftly roll, 
There are colors bright and colors dull 
In the prism of every soul. 

It's a long way round a life, sweetheart. 

But it all seems short at best. 
When the race is run and the fight well won, 

And the dangers safely passed : 
And I wish you joy that across the years 

There is light behind, before, — 
When the milestones gleam in the setting sun 

I will wish you joy once more ! 

When the lessons of life are all ended. 

And Death says, *^ The school is dismissed ! " 

May the little ones gather around me, 
To bid me good-night and be kissed ! 

CHARLES IMONROE DICKINSON. 
[247] 



T 



SEPTEMBER 
Third Day 

HY grace be mine, O yellow rose, 

My heart like thine its blossoms shed, 
Grow fragrant to the fragrant close. 



And now once again, dear, I rifle to-day 

The sweets of the summer from bee-haunted 
bowers. 

And laden with all that my life longs to say, 
I send, for your pleasure, a wish all in flowers. 

The rosebuds will whisper my wishes. 
Now lay them, I pray, on your cheek. 

Ah, me ! if but mine that sweet chance were, 
What wonderful things I could speak ! 

One heaven bends above : 
The lowliest head oft-times hath sweetest rest ; 
O'er song-birds in the pine, and bee in the ivy low, 
Is the same love, it is all God's summer ; 
Well pleased is He if we patiently do our best. 
So hurry, little bee, and low green grasses grow. 

You help to make the summer. 

M. HOLLEY. 

[248] 



SEPTEMBER 
Fourth Day 

COULD there be but one with me that loved 
me, I would light my hearth-fire. 

BRYANT. 

O Sun 

From out whose gracious rays 

Came forth the day of days, 

When my dear love was born, 
Shine out 

And with your brightest ray 

Bring gift divine to mark her wedding day. 
A gift, a golden gleam, 
A prophecy of good in every beam. 
Rejoice with so much of yourself that in her lives. 
Which she with loving joy to others freely gives. 

ADAMS. 

Send the ruddy firehght higher ; 
Draw your easy chair up nigher j 
Through the winter, bleak and chill, 
Love can have its summer stilL 

IDA D. COOLBRITH. 

'Tis time to light the evening fire — 
Come, read with me and sing. 

[249] 



SEPTEMBER 
Fifth Day 

LOOK not mournfully into the past ; it comes 
not back again. Wisely improve the pres- 
ent; it is thine. Go forth to meet the future 
without fear and with a brave heart. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Be not anxious about to-morrow. Do to-day's 
duty, fight to-day's temptation ; and do not 
weaken and distract yourself by looking forward 
to things you cannot see, and could not under- 
stand if you saw them. kingsley. 
Learn to live and live to learn, 
Ignorance like a fire doth burn, 
Little tasks make large return. 

In thy labors patient be. 
Afterward released and free. 
Nature will be bright to thee. 

Toil, when wilhng, groweth less ; 
^' Always play " may seem to bless, 
Yet the end is weariness. 

Live to learn and learn to live. 
Only this content can give ; 
Reckless joys are fugitive ! 

BAYARD TAYLOR, 

[250] 



o 



SEPTEMBER 
Sixth Day 

SAVE her from a pang in heaven ! 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 



Take thou these oHve leaves from me, 

To mingle with thy brighter bays ! 
Some balm of peace and purity 
In them may faintly breathe of thee ; 
And take the grateful love, wherein I hide thy 
praise ! bayard taylor. 

I cannot clasp your hand in mine, 

We are so far apart, 
But wishes are like silver cords 

That link us heart to heart. 

M. E. HERITAGE. 

On the wild-rose tree 
Many buds there be ; 
Yet each sunny hour 
Hath but one fair flower. 

Thou who wouldst be mine 
Open wide thine eyes 
In each sunny hour. 
Pluck the one perfect flower. 

RICHARD WATSON GILDER. 
[251] 



I 



SEPTEMBER 
Seventh Day 

SEND you, Love, like a carrier dove, 
My wishes and my greeting. 



I send you, dear, my written wish, 
'Twill take a richer, purer tone. 

When read by sympathetic lips, 

As buds are sweeter when they're blown. 

And yet no words are rare enough 
To give my wish its longed-for grace, 

No page so white as that I crave 
Whereon my heart's desire to trace. 

But read it, dear — and lend thy voice 
To search its hidden graces out. 

Nor let its poverty of words 

Engender in thy soul one doubt. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

Make home a hive where all beautiful feelings 
Cluster, like bees, and their honey-dew bring ; 

Make it a temple of holy reveahngs, 

And love its bright angel with hovering wing. 

[252] 



B 



SEPTEMBER 
Eighth Day 

E reconciled to thine enemy 1 



Oh, to be forgiving ! 

All our other sorrows are sorrows that beat upon 
us from without ; but remorse, unforgiveness, 
regret for unkindness, ever arise and haunt us 
from within. w. rudder. 

Reconciliation. 
If thou wert lying, cold and still and white. 
In death's embraces, O mine enemy ! 
I think that if I came and looked on thee 
I should forgive ; that something in the sight 
Of thy still face would conquer me, by right 
Of death's sad impotence, and I should see 
How pitiful a thing it is to be 
At feud with aught that's mortal. 

So, to-night. 
My soul, unfurhng her white flag of peace, — 
Forestalling that dread hour when we may meet, 
The dead face and the living, — fain would cry 
Across the years, "■ Oh, let our warfare cease 1 " 
Life is so short, and hatred is not sweet ; 
Let there be peace between us ere we die. 

CAROLINE ATHERTON MASON. 



A 



SEPTEMBER 
Ninth Day 

ND so, good luck to you ! 



SHAKSPEARE. 



I've come, dear friend, to sing the whole day long, 
^^Good luck ! " Good luck's the burden of my 

song : 
Sweet, simple words, but then the wish is true. 
And may good \mcY forever come to you ! 

Somebody has said that good luck is simply a 
good will. He who wills may accomplish. So in 
wishing you good luck, I am really wishing you a 
sturdy will. martha Washington. 

The best that life can give be thine, 
All pleasures round thy pathway twine. 

Heed not the folk who sing or say 
In sonnet sad or sermon chill, 

Alack, alack, and well-a-day. 

This round world's but a bitter pill ! 

Sometimes we quarrel with our lot, 
We too are sad and careful ; still — 

We'd rather be alive than not. 

[254] 



SEPTEMBER 
Tenth Day 

I WISH my power were equal to my will 
To give thee happiness without alloy, 
To help thee choose the good, refuse the ill, 
To fill thy cup of life with peace and joy. 

And yet, how dare I wish for power to guide 
Thy destiny ! I know not what is best. 

My dim sight cannot pierce the clouds that hide 
Thy onward path toward full and perfect rest. 

I leave thee in His hands who knows the way, 
And rough or smooth, the way He wills is right, 

And leadeth forward to the glorious day 
That needs no earthly sun to give it light. 

May you improve the golden moment of oppor- 
tunity, and catch the good that is within your 
reach. samuel johnson. 

Take royalty, great Past, my king. 

To-night ! 
To-morrow's sun may thee unthrone : 
But eyes, lips, heart — all that I own 
Of treasure — I before thee fling 

To-night. 

LEONORA BECK. 

[255] 



I 



SEPTEMBER 
Eleventh Day 

WISH you wouldn't criticise my faults. 

I wish that men were not so prone 

To sit in condemnation, 
I wish they did not feel that they 

Comprised the whole creation ! 

And indeed, my dear, I wish that you could see 
my intentions with as clear an eye as that with 
which you view my shortcomings. 

MARTHA WASHINGTON. 

I think that the first virtue is to restrain the tongue. 
He approaches nearest to the gods who knows how 
to be silent even though he is in the right. 
May we all be silent as to the failings of others. 

CATC. 

There are words which can separate hearts sooner 
than sharp swords ; there are words whose sting 
can remain through a whole life. 
Among the calamities which from age to age have 
overwhelmed mankind none can be traced to a 
surer source than bitterness of speech. 

[256] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twelfth Day 

T7^ EEP the door of thy Hps. 

Govern thy Hps 
• As they were palace doors, the king without, 
Tranquil and fair and Courteous be all words 
Which from that presence wins. 

EDWIN ARNOLD. 

May it not be in any man's power to say truly of 
thee that thou art not simple or that thou art not 
good : but let him not speak truly whoever shall 
think anything of this kind about thee ; and this 
is altogether in thy power. For who is he that 
shall hinder thee from being good and simple? 

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 

A prayer is in my heart to-night 

I hardly dare to say : 
^' Lord, put my wishes all to flight 

Nor let me have my way ! " 
I dare not say it. Lord, for fear 

My heart I may mistake ; 
So many earthly things are dear 

Perhaps, for earth's own sake. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

[257] 



M 



SEPTEMBER 
Thirteenth Day 

AY it always be morning in your heart ! 



Tis always morning somewhere, longfellow. 

With the sunset of the mortal begins the morning 
of the immortal life. 

There must be dark days in every Hfe. It takes 
rain as well as sunshine to fertiHze *^ the soul's 
still garden place." May you bow meekly be- 
neath the storms which may sweep over you, 
knowing that 

^^ God's in His heaven 
AlPs right with the worlds 

Ah, the life that drooped and faded 
Still might cheer us with its worth 

If the wish that was so tardy 
Had but come to timely birth. 

If the things thou desirest do not come to thee, 

the pursuits and avoidances of which disturb thee, 

still, in a manner thou goest to them. Let then 

thy judgment about them be at rest, and they 

will remain quiet, and thou wilt not be seen either 

pursuing or avoiding. marcus aurelius. 

[258J 



G 



SEPTEMBER 
Fourfeenfb Day 

OD bless you and good bye. irmng. 



It was but a brief ^^ God bless you ! " 

As hand lay in hand, a word 
By pilgrim spoken to pilgrim, 

But its wish and its promise they heard. 

They said in that low ^' God bless you/' 

Whatever one spirit could say 
To another, as each departed 

On a separate, untried way. 

LUCY L4RC0M. 

In absence, as in companionship, the wish which 
the heart craves for its loved ones is breathed 
forth in the low prayer — God bless you. 
All the blessings of all the ages he in that simple 
benediction. It is the greeting which the help- 
less babe receives when he comes into the world ; 
it is the last wish with which we speed our loved 
ones upon their long, long journey. 

There may be worthier work for one 

Whose task on earth was nobly done, 

O friend, whose wings have reached the sky, 

Once more we breathe ^^ Great Heart, good bve." 

[259] 



T 



SEPTEMBER 
Fifteenth Day 

HE Lord guide thee continually. 

ISAIAH 63 : 2. 



The light of God's wisdom can make a path for 
us even across the stormy sea of life. His guid- 
ance shows a track where we can pilot our little 
human craft safely. May His love bring us into 
port when the voyage is over. 

Light of Life so sweetly beaming 
Down upon life's troubled sea, 

With the love of Jesus beaming, 
Shine, shine on me. 

Light of Life that knows no fading, 
From all changes Thou art free ; 

Holy light that knows no fading. 
Shine, shine on me. 

Light of Life, in days of gladness, 
To Thy radiance I would flee : 

Be my strength in days of sadness, 
Shine, shine on me. bonar. 

[260] 



SEPTEMBER 
Sixteenth Day 

WE do not wish our loved ones back again. 
We thank God that the number of re- 
deemed is augmenting still and that there is a 
place for every single soul, in the ^^ many man- 
sions." BEECHER. 

For us the short-lived care and pain, 
For them the endless rest from care, 
The crown, the palm, the deathless youth. 
We would not wish them back — ah, no ! 

Do we indeed wish that the dead 
Should still be near us at our side ? 
Is there no baseness we would hide ? 

No inner vileness that we dread ? 

I wrong the grave with fears untrue : 
Shall we be blamed for want of faith? 
There must be wisdom with great Death ; 

The dead shall look me through and through. 

Be near us when we climb or fall : 
Ye watch, like God, the rolling hours 
With larger, other eyes than ours. 

To make allowance for us all. tennyson. 

[261] 



SEPTEMBER 
Seventeenth Day 

I ASK not now for gold to gild 
With mocking shine a weary frame ; 
The yearning of the mind is stilled, — 
I ask not now for fame. 

To-day beneath Thy chastening eye 
I crave alone for peace and rest, 

Submissive in Thy hand to lie, 
And feel that it is best. 

In vain I task my aching brain, 
In vain the sage's thought I scan, 

I only feel how weak and vain. 
How poor and blind is man. 

And now my spirit longs for home. 
And longs for light whereby to see, 

And, like a weary child, would come, 
O Father, unto Thee. 

Though oft, like letters traced on sand, 
My weak resolves have passed away. 

In mercy lend Thy helping hand 

Unto my prayer to-day ! whittier. 

[262] 



T 



SEPTEMBER 
Eighteenth Day 

HROUGH all my wishes breathe Thy will ! 
Lead into Thine my way ! 

LUCY LARCOM. 



O Lord, grant me heavenly wisdom, that I may 
learn above all things to seek and to find Thee, 
above all things to enjoy and to love Thee, and 
to think of all other things as they really are, 
according to Thy wise ordering. 

THOMAS A KEMPIS. 

Longing is God's fresh heavenward will 

With our poor earthward striving ; 
We quench it that we may be still 

Content with merely living ; 
But would we learn that heart's full scope 

Which we are hourly wronging, 
Our lives must climb from hope to hope. 

And realize our longing. lowell. 

The corridors of Time are full of doors ; enter 
thou into lofty chambers. 

Lord, enter this house of my being. 
And fill every room with Thy light. 

[263] 



SEPTEMBER 
Nineteenth Day 

My Other Me, 

CHILDREN, do you ever, 
In walks by land or sea, 
Meet a little maiden 
Long time lost to me ? 

She is gay and gladsome, 

Has a laughing face, 
And a heart as sunny ; 

And her name is Grace. 

Long time since I lost her. 

That other Me of mine ; 
She crossed into Timers shadow 

Out of Youth's sunshine. 

Now the darkness keeps her ; 

And call her as I will, 
The years that lie between us 

Hide her from me still. 

I am dull and pain-worn, 

And lonely as can be — 
O children, if you meet her. 

Send back my other Me ! 

GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD. 
[264] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twentieth Day 

MAY your thoughts be as boundless, 
Your soul be as free 
As the winds that are tossing 
The waves of the sea ! 

In strong blast of October, 

At the equinox, 
Stirred up in his hollow bed 

Proud ocean rocks ; 
Plunge the ships on his bosom, 

Leaps and plunges the foam — 
It's oh, for mothers' sons at sea. 

That they were safe at home. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

How often, oh, how often 

I had wished that the swelling tide 
Would bear me away on its bosom 

O'er the ocean wild and wide, 
For my heart was hot and restless. 

And my life was full of care, 
And the burden laid upon me 

Seemed greater than I could bear. 

LONGFELLOW. 

[265] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty-first Day 

COULD we by a wish 
Have what we will and get the future now, 
Would we wish aught done undone in the past? 
So, let him wait God's instant men call years ; 
Meantime hold hard by truth, and his great soul, 
Do out the duty. Through such souls alone 
God stooping shows sufficient of His light 
For us i' the dark to rise by. And I rise. 

ROBERT BROWNING. 

May you ask yourself at evening: What that is 
immortal have I done to-day? Until thou hast 
conquered say nothing of thy secret strife. The 
good which thou hast done, forget, and do some- 
thing better. All forms which are of man's make, 
God's hand shatters ; break them not, but put 
into the form so much spirit that something 
everlasting may remain for you if all forms are 
shattered. lavater. 

At each day's close, whatever tale they tell. 
May you unto your heart say, " All is well ! " 

LUCY LARCOM. 

[266] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty -second Day 

FOR each one there is an opening of the gate 
of heaven, which on this side men call 
death, but which on that is called life. May we 
be brought through it with exceeding joy ! 

BEECHER. 

Far out of sight while yet the flesh enfolds us, 
Lies the fair country where our hearts abide. 

And of its bliss is naught more wondrous told us 
Than these few words — ^^ I shall be satisfied.'* 

Thither my weak and weary steps are tending, 
Saviour and Lord ! with Thy frail child abide ! 

This is my wish that when, all wanderings ending, 
I then may see Thee, and " be satisfied." 

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still 

Will lead me on 
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till 

The night is gone. 
And with the morn those angel faces smile. 
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile. 

JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. 
[267] 



M 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty -third Day 

AY you walk unspotted from the world ! 



O thou child of a King, may the world have no 
dominion over thee ! — may it be easily controlled 
so that thou mayst with confidence and security 
draw near to the Father; mayst thou with up- 
lifted face and heart, be able to view Him who 
has washed all thy sins away that so thou mayst 
gain strength by the power of His love ! 

Mayst thou not be disturbed by thinking of the 
whole of thy Kfe. Let not thy thoughts embrace 
all the various troubles which thou mayst expect 
to befall thee ; but on every occasion ask thyself : 
What is there intolerable in this and past bearing ? 
— for thou wilt be ashamed to confess. 
In the next place remember that neither the future 
nor the past pains thee, but only the present. 

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 

Keep thou the one true way in work or play. 

KEBLE. 

May you, each day, take forward steps 
And thus gain power to study noble things. 

- SOPHOCLES. 

[268] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty -fourth Day 

MAY every day count as something gained 
and every night bring you closer to the 
fulfilment of your hopes ! 

For ah, another year, another year. 
To set my Hfe in richer, stronger soil. 

And prune the weeds away that creep too near, 
And watch and tend with never-ceasing toil 

Another year, ah yes, another year. 

NORA PERRY. 

Count that day lost whose low descending sun 
Views from thy hand no worthy service done. 

POPE. 

Be a lamp in the chamber if you cannot be a star 
in the sky. george eliot. 

Prophets, 
Not every soul may hear, 
Yet to the listening ear 
God's lips are ever near. 
Heard'st thou the silence break? 
Speak, for the dull world's sake ! 
Speak, though thine own heart quake ! 

[269] JAMES BUCKHAM. 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty-fifth Day 

IF it lay within our power to make one wish, 
and but one, that would surely be realized, 
we would almost certainly, from force of habit, 
give utterance to some weak or useless long- 
ing, and away would go our chance of the thing 
coveted. 

Of all amusements for the mind. 

From logic down to fishing, 
There isn't one that you can find 

So very cheap as " wishing." 
A very choice diversion, too. 

If we but rightly use it, 
And not, as we are apt to do. 

Pervert it and abuse it. saxe. 

'* Man wants but Httle here below 

Nor wants that little long," 
'Tis not with me exactly so, 

But 'tis so in the song : 
My wants are many, and if told, 

Would muster many a score ; 
And were each wish a mint of gold 

I still should long for more. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
[270] 



SEPTEMBER 
^Twenty-sixth Day 

I AM wholly thine. Nor could I wish anything to 
complete my happiness but that thou wouldst 
be wholly mine. 

When Spring comes laughing by vale and hill, 
By wind-flower walking and daffodil — 
Sing, stars of morning, sing, morning skies. 
Sing blue of speedwell and my Love's eyes ! 

When comes the Summer, full-leaved and strong, 
And gay birds gossip the orchard long, 
Sing, hid sweet honey that no bee sips. 
Sing, red, red roses, and my Love's lips. 

When Autumn scatters the leaves again, 
And piled sheaves bury the broad-wheeled wain. 
Sing, flutes of harvest when men rejoice. 
Sing, rounds of reapers and my Love's voice ! 

But when comes Winter with hail and storm, 
And red fire roaring and ingle warm. 
Sing first sad going of friends that part. 
Then sing glad meeting and my Love's heart. 

AUSTIN DOBSON. 

[271] 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty -seventh Day 

Do you dream, dear heart, as the birthdays 
come, 
And the years as surely go, 
Of the years that have drifted away, away. 
On Time's relentless flow? 

Do you think of the hours that one by one 
Have dropped in that flowing stream, 

With their sunhght joys or moonlight hope. 
Oh, is it of these you dream ? 

Or, standing as one on some threshold stands. 

Do you long to open wide 
The doors of the Future and step within 

To see what its curtains hide ? 

Oh, dear, the future is all untried, 

But my wish would make it bright ; •— 

My wish that an ever sunny heart 
Would be its own clear light. 

With that gift you can journey serenely on 
Through a world of change and care. 

You will fear no future, regret no past. 
But dwell in a present fair. 
[272] 



L 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty-eighth Day 

ONGING is only profitable when it brings 
our actions into harmony with our duty. 

What is your wish this moment? 

Tell me true, 
And in return I'll tell you mine — 

It is for you ! 



There's nothing either good or bad but wishing 
makes it so. shakspeare. 

Wishing of all employments is the worst, 
Philosophy's remorse and health's decay. 

YOUNG. 

There are times when the gentle relaxation of 
wishing reheves the mind of undue fatigue; but 
if wishing become longing it may have the same 
effect upon the mind that dissipation has upon 
the body. The wings of our wishes need clipping 
sometimes, or they would fly away with us. 

After all it is not what we wish for, but what we 
have and are, that makes us really happy. 

[273] 



M 



SEPTEMBER 
Twenty-ninth Day 

AY you feel the companionship of Nature ! 



If our hearts are warmed in deep mountain soli- 
tudes, it is because an unseen Lover is within that 
throbbing vastness, wrapping us about with it as 
with his garment folds ! 

So may every lonely retreat of Nature seem like 
the presence of a sympathetic friend, upon whose 
bosom we can pour out our woes. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

May you have fellowship with Nature. Then may 
you say : — 

^^ I care not, Fortune, what you me deny. 

You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace, 
You cannot shut the windows of the sky 

Through which Aurora shows her brighten- 
ing face. 
You cannot bar my constant feet to trace 

The woods and lawns, by living stream, at eve : 
Let health my nerves and finer fibres brace. 
And I their toys to the great children leave." 

May you walk upon white clouds wreathed and 

curled. keats. 

[274] 



SEPTEMBER 
Thirtieth Day 

LOOK to the present and not to the future. 
Your wishes are all embalmed for you in 
the golden present. 

The value of the future depends upon the value 
attached to to-day ; there is no magic in the years 
to come, nothing can bloom in those fairer fields 
save that which is sown to-day. I could wish that 
men might see, not the glory of the life to come, 
but the sacredness of the life that now is ; not to 
make men imagine the beauty of heaven, but to 
make them realize the divinity of earth. 
He has mastered the secret of Hfe who has learned 
the value of the present moment, who sees the 
beauty of present surroundings. For there is no 
future outside of us ; it lies within us, and we 
make it for ourselves. the outlook. 

Whatever wish is yours to make 

Make it ere the morrow — 
Whatever good your hand would grasp 

Buy it — do not borrow. 

[275] 




OCTOBER 



First Day 

T T 70ULD that I might show you my heart. 

How shall I love you ? I wish all day, 

Dear, for a tenderer, sweeter way : 

Songs that I sing to you, words that I say. 

Prayers that are voiceless on lips that would pray ; 

These may not tell of the love of my Hfe : 

How shall I love you, my sweetheart, my wife ? 

How shall I love you ? Love is the bread 
Of life to a woman — the white and the red 
Of all the world's roses, the light that is shed 
On all the world's pathways, till life shall be dead ! 
The star in the storm and the strength in the strife : 
How shall I love you, my sweetheart, my wife ? 

FRANK R. STAUNTON. 
[276] 




y^-,w 



"Viias^ 



l^earl" in cl^I'Tiing 
gladness o'er and oer 
inqs on; - God's everlashing love! 
What- NA^ouldsh hhou more? 

Frances l^idley Havert^al. 



B 



OCTOBER 
Second Day 

E thy bands loosed, O sleeper ! 



Sleep, love, sleep ! 

The dusty day is done. 

Lo ! from afar the freshening breezes sweep 

Wide over groves of balm, 

Down from the towering palm, 

In at the open casement coohng run, 

And round thy lowly bed. 

Thy bed of pain. 

Bathing thy patient head, 

Like grateful showers of rain, 

They come ; 

While the white curtains, waving to and fro. 

Fan the sick air ; 

And pitying the shadows come and go, 

With gentle human care. 

Compassionate and dumb. 

, EMILY CHUBBUCK JUDSON. 

As sleep around thee folds her downy wing, 
And songs around thee weave a fairy spell, 

To heaven may thy heart's deep longing cling 
And happiness forever with thee dwell. 

[277] 



OCTOBER 
Third Day 

No song can ever tell 
How much I long to hear 
One voice, that like the echo of a silver bell, 

Unconscious, low, and clear, 
Falls, as aforetime angel-voices fell 
On Saint Cecilia^s ear : 

And it will come again. 
And I shall hear it,^ when 
The droning summer bee forgets his song. 
And frosty autumn crimsons hill and dell : 
I shall not murmur, then, 
" This summer is too long ! " 

Haste, happy hours, — 

Fade, tardy, lingering flowers ! 
Your fragrance has departed long ago ; 

I yearn for cold winds, whisthng through the 
ruined bowers. 
For winter's snow, 

If within them, she 

May come to teach my heart a cheering song. 
And lovingly 

Make me forget all weariness and severance 
and wrong. george Arnold. 

[278] 



o 



OCTOBER 
Fourth Day 

H that I had wings Hke a dove ! 

PSALM 55 : 6. 

Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, 

Thy better portion trace. 
Rise from transitory things 

Toward heaven thy native place. 
Sun and moon and stars decay, 

Time shall soon this earth remove ; 
Rise, my soul, and haste away 

To seats prepared above ! 

ROBERT SEAGRAVE. 

"Coming nearer and nearer to Christ," we say: 
that does not mean creeping into a refuge where 
we can be safe. It means repeating His charac- 
ter more and more in ours. The only true dan- 
ger is sin : the only true safety is holiness. May 
we all see Christ mirrored in our daily lives ! 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

And teach me, Master, in Thy way ; 

Through loving human voices, 
Through earth's great mystery day by day. 

Through faith that aye rejoices. 

CAROLINE CHESBRO. 
[279] 



OCTOBER 
Fifth Day 

Bridal Wish, 

HASTE, little fingers, haste, haste ! 
Haste, little fingers pearly ; 
And all along the slender waist, 

And up and down the silken sleeves. 
Knot the darling and dainty leaves, 
And wind o' the south, blow light and fast, 
And bring the flowers so early ! 

Low, droop low, my tender eyes. 

Low, and all demurely. 
And make the shining seams to run 
Like little streaks o' th' morning sun 

Through silver clouds so purely; 
And fall, sweet rain, fall out o' the skies, 

And bring the flowers so early ! 

Push, httle hands, from the bended face, 

And tresses crumpled curly. 
And stitch the hem in the frill of snow 
And give to the veil its misty flow, 

And melt, ye frosts, so surly ; 
And shine out. Spring, with your days of grace 

And bring the flowers so early ! 

ALICE CARY. 

[280] 



OCTOBER 
Sixth Day 

WOULD that we might do our day's work 
before the night falls. 

Never delay 
To do the duty which the hour brings, 
Whether it be in great or smaller things, 

For who doth know 
What he shall do the coming day ? 

ANONYMOUS. 

Be stirring as the time : be fire with fire j 

... So shall inferior eyes, 
That borrow their behavior from the great, 
Grow great by your example ; and put on 
The dauntless spirit of resolution. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

Work ! Work ! though wealth surround you 

Think not thy labor on that account done ; 
Work though the chaplet of honor has crowned you, 

Thy mission, it may be, is only begun ; 
Strive to attain the true end of your being, 

Find to do good both a way and a will. 
Walk in uprightness before the All-Seeing, 

And while the day lingers keep laboring still. 

HENRY H. SAUNDERSON. 
[281] 



A^ 



OCTOBER 
Seventh Day 

LL griefs be far from thee ; 
All joys draw near to thee ! 



I wish thee free from grief 

Forever more, 
I wish thee peace and joy 

In boundless store ; 
I wish thee Fortune's best 

And brightest form, 
I wish thee spirits free 

From clouds and storm. 

I wish thee courage bold 

Life's war to fight^ 
I wish thee wisdom true 

To see the light ; 
I wish thee hope and love 

Never to cease, 
I wish thee, best of all, 

The gift of Peace. 



[282] 



OCTOBER 
\bth Day 



I 



F you wish a perfect character, wed a pure life 
to sweet courtesy. dr. tanner. 



If you wish to Hve happily with conscience you 
must love, serve, and obey. 

Curved is the line of beauty. 
Straight is the path of duty. 

Follow the last and thou shalt see 

The other always following thee. 

Search not the roots of the fountain, 

But drink the water bright ; 
Gaze far above the mountain, 

The sky may speak in light. 
But if yet thou seest no beauty. 

If in doubt thy heart yet cries. 
With thy hands go and do thy duty, 

And thy work will clear thine eyes. 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 



I 



The duty nearest, whatsoe'er it be — 
So He appoint it ! Let this be our aim. 

To give our best endeavor, full and free. 
Forgetting self — to glory in His name ! 

IDA SCOTT TAYLOR. 

[283] 



OCTOBER 
Ninth Day 

ON Fancy's swan-like pinions I would that I 
might sail, 
But oftener Folly's goose-wings bear me on the 

gale. EMILY BARNARD. 

I wish that women .were all angels — but then, 
what would become of the men-folks, poor lonely 
creatures ! mrs. Archibald. 

I wish that modest worth might be 

Appraised with truth and candor, 
I wish that innocence were free 

From treachery and slander ; 
I wish, in fine, that joy and mirth 

And every good ideal 
May come erstwhile throughout the earth 

To be the glorious Real ! 

I wish that sympathy and love 

And every human passion 
That has its origin above 

Would come and keep in fashion ; 
That scorn and jealousy and hate 

And every base emotion 
Were buried fifty fathoms deep 

Beneath the waves of ocean. saxe. 

[284] 



M 



OCTOBER 
Tenth Day 

AY you grow old gracefully ! 



Compensation, ■ 

Musing of Spring, I walked the woodland ways 
Homesick for violets ^mid the Autumn's blaze, 

Wishing the year were young, 

While Indian Summer flung 
Against the far faint hills her veil of purple haze. 

When suddenly I caught an azure gleam 
And in long ranks beside the sleeping stream 

The blue-fringed gentians stood 

And glorified the wood, 
Lovely as flowers bloom to charm a poet's dream. 

What satin texture ! What a heavenly hue ! 

What silken fringes holding tears of dew ! 
The sea, the summer skies, 
Nor young Love's brimming eyes, 

Have ever shown such deep, such dear delicious 
blue. 

MRS. McVEAN ADAMS. 
[285] 



M 



OCTOBER 

Eleventh Day 

AY your wishes reach as high as heaven ! 



Dome up, O heaven, yet higher o'er my head \ 
Back ! back, horizon ! widen out my world ! 
Rush in, O infinite sea of the unknown, 
For though He slay me, I will trust in God. 

GEORGE MACDONALD. 

I beg of you, calm souls, whose wondering pity 

Looks at paths you never trod, 
I beg of you who suffer — for all sorrow 

Must be near to God, — 
And the need is even greater than you see — 
Pray for me ! 

ADELAIDE PROCTER. 

The chestnuts shine through the clover rind. 
And the woodland leaves are red, my dear, 

The scarlet fuchsias burn in the wind — 
Funeral plumes for the year ! 

The year that has brought me so much woe 
That if it were not for you, my dear, 

I could wish the fuchsias' fire might glow 
For me as well as the year. 

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. 
[286] 



M 



OCTOBER 
Twelfth Day 

N^l the glories of your Autumn fulfil the 
promise of your Spring ! 



May you give your heart to God while you are 
still in the vigor of Hfe. Many bring to Him but 
the fragments — many come only to be insured 
against death. How much nobler to consecrate 
our powers to Him. I could wish that all gener- 
ous and godly purposes might be inspired in your 
heart and ripened into conviction and decision, 
that so they might be nourished by the grace, and 
perpetuated by the spirit which gave them birth. 

Now every joy be thine 
That makes the world divine, 

With stars of love 

To shine above 
In sacred, holy sign. 

Our lives may be judged by the things that we 
wish for. Wishes shape the character. May all 
your wishes be noble ones ! 

[287] 



OCTOBER 
Thirteenth Day 

GOD'S peace be yours through all the changes 
of the years ! 

God's love and peace be with thee where 
Soe'er this soft autumnal air 
Lifts the soft tresses of thy hair ! 

Where'er I look, where'er I stray, 
Thy thought goes with me on my way : 
And hence the prayer I breathe to-day. 

If, then, a fervent wish for thee 

The gracious heavens will heed from me, 

What should, dear heart, its burden be ? 

The sighing of a shaken reed — 
What can I more than meekly plead 
The greatness of our common need ? 

God's love — unchanging, pure, and true, 
The Paraclete white shining through 
His peace — the fall of Hermon's dew ! 

With such a prayer on this sweet day. 
As thou may St hear and I may say, 
I greet thee, dearest, far away ! 

WHITTIER. 

[288] 



1 



OCTOBER 
Fourteenth Day 

BE near me when my light is low, 
When the blood creeps and the nerves prick 
And tingle ; and the heart is sick, 
And all the wheels of Being slow. 

Be near me when I fade away, 

To point the term of human strife. 
And on the low, dark verge of life. 

The twilight of eternal day. tennyson. 

Sweet thought of God, now do thy work 

As thou hast done before ; 
Wake up, and tears will wake with thee, 

And the dull mood be o'er. 

The very thinking of the thought. 

Without or praise or prayer. 
Gives light to know and life to do. 

And marvellous strength to bear. 

I bless Thee, Lord, for this kind check 

To spirits over free. 
And for all things that make me feel 

More helpless need of Thee. 

FABER. 

[289] 



M 



OCTOBER 
Fifteenth Day 

AY you gather up the fragments ! 



My life so small and crowded was 

No offering could I bring, 
No gift of days meet for His gaze 

To lay before my King. 
With downcast eyes I waited while 

His voice spoke to my soul, 
'^Thy fragments small are all in all — 

They make a perfect whole." 

How many of the signal successes of hfe have 
grown out of the treasured fragments of time. 
May you gather up these broken fragments, glean 
the precious dust, those raspings and parings of 
precious duration, those leavings of days and 
remnants of hours which so many are sweeping 
into the vast waste of existence. 
Perhaps, if you be a miser of moments, — if you 
be frugal and hoard up the half-hours and unex- 
pected holidays, — your careful gleanings may eke 
you a long and useful life, and you may die, at 
last, richer in existence than multitudes whose 
time is all their own. 

[290] 



OCTOBER 
Sixteenth Day 

FOREVER haltless hurries Time, the Durable 
to gain. 
Mayst thou be true and fetter Time with ever- 
lasting chain ! schiller. 

Without haste ! Without rest ! 

Bind the motto to thy breast ; 

Bear it with thee as a spell ; 

Storm or sunshine, guard it well ! 

Heed not flowers that round thee bloom, 

Bear it onward to the tomb ! 

Haste not ! let no thoughtless deed 
Mar for aye, the spirit's speed ; 
Ponder well and know the right. 
Onward then with all thy might ; 
Haste not ! years can ne'er atone 
For one reckless action done. 

Haste not ! rest not ! calmly wait. 
Meekly bear the storms of fate ! 
Duty be thy polar guide — 
Do the right whate'er betide ! 

TR. FROM GOETHE. 
[291] 



L 



OCTOBER 
Seventeenth Day 

ET not your heart be troubled. 

S. JOHN 14 : I. 



Lean Hard, My Child. 

Lean hard, my child ; 

And let thy weary, throbbing head 
Lay on My loving, sheltering breast ; 
And may thy soul in Me find rest, 

And in My love be comforted ; 
Lean hard, my child. 

Lean hard, my child ; 

I know the anguish of thy soul ; 
I poised the dart that made the wound 
That rankles in the spot unsound ; 

My sovereign balm shall make thee whole ; 
Lean hard, my child. 

Lean hard, my child ; 

Some earthly treasure hast thou lost 
That makes thy heart a dreary waste ; 
Then to My outstretched arms make haste ; 

Blessings I give beyond all cost ; 
Lean hard, my child. 

J. M. CAVANESS. 

[292] 



I 



OCTOBER 
Eighteenth Day 

WISH you above all other dignities, a still 
and quiet conscience. shakspeare. 

I wish — a common wish, indeed — 

My purse were somewhat fatter. 
That I might cheer the child of need, 

And not my pride to flatter ; 
That I might make oppression reel, 

As only gold can make it. 
And break the tyrant's rod of steel, 

As only gold can break it. saxe. 

May the value of your possessions reach that 
happy medium whfch will enable you to do good 
in the world, but may your fortune never grow 
so large as to be a snare to your better nature. 
" Keep me from the snares which they have laid 
for me." 

May you improve the golden moments of oppor- 
tunity and catch the good that is within thy reach. 

Slumber not in the tents of your fathers. The 
world is advancing. Advance with it. 

MAZZINI. 

[293] 



• OCTOBER 
Nineteenth Day 

MAY you be looked upon with the eyes of 
love! 

Climb high — love high. browning. 

The sunshine of thine eyes, 

(O still, celestial beam ! ) 
Whatever it touches it fills 

With the life of its lambent gleam. 

The sunshine of thine eyes. 

Oh, let it fall on me ! 
Though I be but a mote of the air, 

I could turn to gold for thee. 

GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. 

Come live with me and be my love. 
And we will all the pleasure prove 
That hill and valley, vale and field. 
Or wood or steepy mountain yield. 

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE. 

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand ! 
O that I were a glove upon that hand 
That I might touch that cheek. 

SHAKSPEARE. 

[294] 



o 



OCTOBER 
Twentieth Day 

H, to build for eternity. 



We are all of us architects, or, rather, we are 
laborers together with God as the great Architect. 
We are building up the soul into character. Like 
Solomon's Temple, it goes up without sound of 
hammer or toil. No solid granite, no glistening 
marble, but thoughts, feelings, purposes, are its 
materials. " Out of these thin and evanescent 
things we are building a structure that shall out- 
live the mountains, the globe, and time itself. 
Day by day the courses go up, tier upon tier, 
story above story." Oh, that we could stand afar 
off and see what we build ! But no, the soul 
is built in silence ; invisible, it yet abides like 
adamant. 
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul. 

As the swift seasons roll ! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free. 

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting 

sea ! HOLMES. 

[295] 



OCTOBER 
Twenty -first Day 

A SONG of joy ! A song of bliss ! 
A song for such an hour as this ! 
The twihght hour ! when winds are low, 
And western skies are all aglow, 
And like a dream beneath our keel 
The silent waters flow. 

A song of joy ! A song of bliss ! 
A song for such an hour as this ! 
The twilight hour ! when shines above 
The tender, tremulous star of love, 
And like a dream around our prow 
The silent shadows melt and flow — 
The silent shadows move. 

A song of joy ! A song of bliss ! 
A song for such an hour as this ! 
The twihght hour ! O night of June, 
Haste onward to thy perfect noon ; 
Till, like a dream the darkness fled. 
The silent moon be overhead — 
The silent, silver moon. 

RUSSELL STURGIS. 

[296] 



w 



OCTOBER 
Twenty -second Day 

AIT : all things will come to thee. 



Life hath its hopes fulfilled ; 
Its glad fruitions, its best answered prayer, 
Sweeter for waiting long. 

ISADORE G. JEFFREY. 

Outside the gate of unfulfilled desire 

I stood and wept. Journeying afar at morn 
I saw it open wide ; while bird-notes borne 
On fragrant breezes floated higher, higher, 
In welcome jubilant ; and ever nigher 
Bloomed the fair fields I longed for. 

Now forlorn 
I stood before the closed-up gate, all worn 
And spiritless, in travel-stained attire. 
But at my side were weaker pilgrims ; then 
I brushed away my fretful tears and tried 
With words and deeds to cheer them in their 
strait. 
i\nd doing this, myself grew strong, so when 
The hinges turned for me, '' Dear Lord," I cried, 
" I thank Thee for this hour outside the gate ! " 

MINNIE L. UPTON. 

[297] 



OCTOBER 
Twenty -third Day 

AH, dear, but come thou back to me ; 
Whatever change the years have brought, 
I find not yet one lonely thought 
That cries against my wish for thee. 

TENNYSON. 

My tender thoughts go forth, beloved. 
Upon the pleasant morning hours. 

With songs of mated birds, and sighs 
From virgin hearts of opening flowers. 

Full laden with love's daintiest store, 

Each smallest thought should come to thee, 

As from the jasmine's hidden cell. 
Flies home the richly burdened bee. 

Would sigh or carol move thee most? 

And w^ere \h^ tenderest kiss bestowed 
On eyes that droop with tears, or lips 

With careless laughter overflowed? 

So questions, love, the foolish heart 
That would thy secret wish divine ; 

Yet idly questions, knowing well 

Thou canst not choose, since all is thine. 

SARAH JANE LIPPINCOTT. 
[298] 



OCTOBER 
Twenty 'fourth Day 

Let Down Your Nets, 

LAUNCH out into the deep, 
The awful depths of a world's despair; 
Hearts that are breaking and eyes that weep, 

Sorrow and ruin and death are there. 
And the sea is \vide and the pitiless tide 

Bears on its bosom — away, 
Beauty and youth in relentless ruth 

To its dark abyss for aye — for aye. 

But the Master's voice comes over the sea, 

" Let down your nets for a draught " for Me ! 
He stands in our midst on our wreck-strewn strand 
And sweet and royal is His command. 
His pleading call 
Is to each — to all : 
And whenever the royal call is heard. 
There hang the nets of the royal Word. 

Trust to the nets and not to your skill, 

Trust to the royal Master's will ! 
Let down your nets each day, each hour. 
For the word of a King is a word of power, 

And the King's own voice comes over the sea, 

'^ Let down your nets for a draught " for Me ! 

LONDON PRESBYTERIAN. 
[299] 



M 



OCTOBER 
Twenty-fifth Day 

AY your sun never set ! 



Night and Day. 
The innocent, sweet Day is dead. 
Dark Night hath slain her in her bed : 
O Moors are as fierce to kill as to wed ! 

— Put out the light, he said. 

A sweeter light than ever rayed 
From star of heaven or eye of maid 
Has vanished in the unknown Shade. 

— She's dead, she's dead, said he. 

Now, in a wild, sad after-mood, 
The tawny Night sits still to brood 
Upon the dawn-time when he wooed. 

— I would she lived, said he. 

» Star-memories of happier times. 

Of loving deeds and lover's rhymes, 
Throng forth in silvery pantomimes. 

— Come back, O Day ! said he. 

SIDNEY LANIER. 

Silken rest tie all my cares up. 

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. 

[300] 



OCTOBER 

Twenty -sixth Day 

I WOULD that my love would silently flow 
In a single word, 
I'd give it the merry breezes ; 
They'd bear it away in sport 

To thee, on their wings, my fairest. 

If love were what the rose is, 

And I were like the leaf, 
Our lives would grow together 

In sad or singing weather, 
Blown fields or flowery closes. 

Green pleasures or gray grief, 
If love were what the rose is. 

And I were like the leaf. 

If I were what the words are, 

And love was like the tune. 
With double sound and single 

Delight our lips would mingle. 
With wishes glad as birds are 

That get sweet rain at noon. 
If I were what the words are. 

And love were like the tune. 

SWINBURNE. 

[301] 



OCTOBER 
Twenty -seventh Day 

As swift years come and go, 
Peace, hope, and love unite 
Around you aye to grow, 

And make your pathway bright. 

H. M. BURNSIDE. 

Good-bye, 

We say it for an hour or for years ; 
We say it smiHng, say it choked with tears ; 
We say it coldly, say it with a kiss ; 
And yet we have no other word than this — 
Good-bye. 

We have no dearer wish for our heart's friend ; 
For him who journeys to the world's far end, 
And scars our soul with going ; thus we say, 
And to him who steps but over the way — 
Good-bye. 

Alike to those we love and those we hate. 
We say no more in parting. At life's gate 
To him who passes out beyond Earth's sight, 
We cry as to the wanderer for a night — 
Good-bye. 

[302] 



T 



OCTOBER 
Twent/y- eighth Day 

HE gentleness of all the gods go with thee. 

SHAKSPEARE. 



Shakspeare, 

I wish that I could have my wish to-night ; 
For all the fairies should assist my flight 

Back into the abyss of years ; 
Till I could see the streaming light, 

And hear the music of the spheres 
That sang together at the joyous birth 

Of that immortal mind, 

The noblest of his kind — 
The only Shakspeare that has graced our earth. 

Oh, that I might behold 
Those gentle sprites, by others all unseen. 

Queen Mab and Puck the bold. 

With curtseys manifold. 
Glide round his cradle every morn and e'en ; 

That I might see the nimble shapes that ran 
And frisked and frolicked by his side. 

When school-hours ended or began. 
At morn or eventide. 

HENRY AMES BLOOD. 
[303] 



s 



OCTOBER 
Twenty-ninth Day 

LEEP shed its balm on you ! 



The common blessings of life are often accepted 
as a matter of course. Sleep sheds its healing 
balm upon us, and we open our eyes to a day of 
usefulness and pleasure. The morning sunlight 
warms every nook and chamber of our hearts, 
and no cruel wind of doubt or dissatisfaction 
blows over us. All our aims seem high and 
noble ; and it is easy to be good. 
But after a sleepless night, when the nerves are 
a-quiver with weariness and the whole system is 
jaded and worn, sleep seems the greatest of all 
blessings. 

May you be soothed by "tired nature's sweet 
restorer, — balmy sleep." 

Softly, softly, make no noise. 

Breathe no breath across her eyes. 

Let her wander now in Dreamland 
Steeped in dreamy, sweet surprise. 

[304] 



L 



OCTOBER 
Tbirtietb Day 

OOK not thou down, but up ! 



BROWNING. 



Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and renew 
a right spirit within me. psalm 51 : 10. 

So, take and use Thy work, 
Amend what flaw may lurk. 
What strain o' the stuff. 

What warping past the aim ! 
My times be in Thy hand ! 
Perfect the. cup as planned ! 
Let age approve of youth 

And death complete the same ! 

Then, welcome each rebuff 

That turns earth's smoothness rough, 

Each sting that bids, nor sit, 

Nor stand, but go ! 
Be our joys three parts pain ! 
Strive and hold cheap the strain ! 
Learn nor account the pang : 

Dare, never grudge the throe ! 

BROWNING. 

[305] 



OCTOBER 
Thirty-first Day 

I WISH you'd find a noble aim, — 
And then — pursue it ; 
I wish you'd find some worthy work, 
And do it. 

The Gospel of Art, 
Work thou for pleasure : paint or sing or carve 
The thing thou lovest, though the body starve. 

Who works for glory misses oft the goal ; 
Who works for money coins his very soul. 

Work for the work's sake then, and it may be 
That these things shall be added unto thee. 

KENYON cox. 

Ah, could we breathe some peaceful air. 
And all save purpose then forget, 

Till eager courage learn to bear 

The gadfly's sting, the pebble's fret ! 

Let higher good and harsher way 
To test our virtues then combine ! 

'Tis not for idle ease we pray, 
But freedom for our task divine. 

BAYARD TAYLOR. 
[306] 




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(^^'~<y iTo NA/'hom our besh is due. 




NOVEMBER 



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hey fly, ^; 
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\nd seeing your joy and confidence, may other:; 
e encouraged to put thfeir trust in Christ, know 
"'at when the dark days come, He will n* : 





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" To yo2i this ho7iojcrable bou7ity shall belong" 

Shakspeare. 



NOVEMBER 
First Day 

Now come the wild weather, 
Come sleet or come snow, 
We'll stand by each other 

However it blow. longfellow. 

As in the first days of November the birds forsake 
the wintry North, and fly through the Hquid air, 
seeking warmer climes, and singing as they fly, so 
may you, as you journey homeward, find songs 
along the w^ay. 

And seeing your joy and confidence, may others 
be encouraged to put their trust in Christ, know- 
ing that when the dark days come. He will not 
forsake His own. For whoever yet leaned upon 
His strength and found it insufficient ? AVhat day 
was ever so dark but that His presence could 
brighten it ? 

[307] 



NOVEMBER 
Second Day 

OH ! would I were dead now, 
Or up in my bed now, 
To cover my head now 

And have a good cry. choate. 

I've often wished that I had clear 
For life, six hundred pounds a year, 
A handsome house to lodge a friend, 
A river at my garden's end. swift. 

I wish only a moderate competence. 

• WASHINGTON. 

There was once an old woman, very poor, igno- 
rant, and friendless. To her a fairy granted three 
wishes. Dazzling visions floated through her 
brain, but through force of habit she cried out, 
" Oh, for a loaf of black bread ! " The loaf 
tumbled down at her feet. Enraged at having 
lost one of her wishes, she cried again, "The 
witches take the loaf!" — which they instantly 
did. Almost speechless with astonishment, she 
stammered forth, " Wish I may die, if that isn't 
a shame ! " So she died and that was the last of 
her. May your luck in wishing be better than that 
of the old woman. . nursery tale. 

[308] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Third Day 

AY all life be glad for thee ! 



While the year flies swift away, 

Month by month and day by day, 
May each moment laden be 

With all songs for thine and thee. 

LADY LAURA HAMPTON. 

Ah, if we could only sing as the birds sing, what 
love and ecstasy would flood the earth with liquid 
music ! ' 

Ah ! could I teach the nightingale, 

Three little words to number. 
Then should its sweet voice from the vale, 

Break on thy morning slumber. 
Ere morning's dawn there should she be. 

Before thy window greeting 

In softest tones repeating 
*' I love, I love thee well. 

Forget, forget me not," 

Oh ! then forget me not ! old song. 

[309] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Fourth Day 

RondeL 
Y love she was a sweet wild rose 



That grew among plain country folk, 
But ah ! she learned the dame's repose, 

The trained coquette's heart-wrecking joke, 

When she went from the homestead oak. 
To learn how Hfe in cities goes. 

My love she was a sweet wild rose 
That grew among plain country folk. 

She knows her wiles my fond heart broke. 
But she has joined the Jacqueminots, 

And careth not. I never spoke 
Since she returned : my wish still grows 
My love were still the sweet wild rose 

That grew among plain country folk. 

VAN FREDENBERG. 



Drink to me only with thine eyes, 
And I will pledge with mine. 

Or leave a kiss but in the cup. 
And I'll not look for wine. 

BEN JONSON. 



Fsio] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Fifth Day 

AY life's shadows be traced upon the golden 
background of unmortal hope ! 



Her one wish was to lead her loved ones upward. 

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, 
Make me a child again, just for to-night ! 
Mother, come back from the echoless shore, 
Take me again to your heart as of yore ; 
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care. 
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair ; 
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep — 
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep ! 

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years ! 

I am so weary of toil and of tears — 

Toil without recompense — tears all in vain — 

Take them, and give me my childhood again ! 

I have grown weary of dust and decay — 

Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away ; 

Weary of sowing for others to reap. 

Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. 

FLORENCE PERCY. 
[311] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Sixth Day 

AY you believe in " the red on the rose ! '' 



Just as the bird is still a bird although it cannot 
sing, and the rose is still a rose although its red 
grows dull and faded in some dark room where it 
is compelled to grow, so the Christian is a Christian 
still, even though his soul is dark with doubt, and 
he goes staggering on, fearing every moment that 
he will fall, never daring to look up and hope. 
May you be a hopeful Christian so far as in you 
lies, but may you be a Christian still, no matter 
what may be your especial mental bias. 

May we find relief from our own hurts. There 
are times when everything seems just beyond our 
reach — the gift just beyond our hand — '' spots 
upon the risen sun," '' mildew in the harvest land." 
It is soul sickness and nothing but divine love can 
heal us. Oh, to avail ourselves of that love, at all 
times and in all places. 



[312] 



o 



NOVEMBER 
Seventh Day 

H, keep me innocent — make others great ! 



O God ! I thank Thee for each wish 

Denied as well as granted, 
Since ofttimes what I craved, if given, 

Had been what least I wanted. 
His thoughts are wiser far than ours, 

Who sees from the beginning, 
And he who doubts the gracious end 

Repays the grace by sinning. 

CAROLINE A. MASON. 

Shepherd mine ! 

From Thy fulness give me still 
Faith to do and bear Thy will. 
Till the morning light shall shine. 

Shepherd mine ! from the German. 

Get into the habit of looking for the silver hning 
of the cloud, and when you have found it, con- 
tinue to look at it, rather than at the leaden gray 
in the middle. It will help you over many hard 

places. WILLITTS. 

[313] 



N 



NOVEMBER 
Eighth Day 

O night descend on thee, 
O'er thee no sorrows come ! 



My fairest child, I have no song to give you ; 

No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray ; 
Yet, ere we part, one good wish I can leave you. 
For every day. 

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever ; 
Do noble things, not dream them all day long : 
And so make life, death, and that vast forever 
One grand, sweet song. 

CHARLES KINGSLEY. 

Hey, rose just born 

Twin to a thorn ; 
Was't so with you, O Love and Scorn? 

Sweet eyes that smiled. 

Now wet and wild ; 
O Eye and Tear — mother and child. 

Well : Love and Pain 

Be kinsfolk twain : 
Yet would, oh, would I could love again. 

SIDNEY LANIER. 
[314] 



NOVEMBER 
Ninth Day 

BE truthful, be steady, whatever betide thee, 
Only one thing do thou ask of the Lord — 
Grace to go forward wherever He guide you — 
Simply believing the truth of His word. 

ANONYMOUS. 

How good and pleasant it is to look back, when 
the years have been well spent ! How inspiring 
to look forward, when the future seems a happy 
one. 

But when past and future meet and are joined by 
the golden clasp of the present, the whole life 
seems to merge and crystallize into a beautiful 
gem reflecting all of the best things of a lifetime. 
May these prismatic rays be reflected in your life ! 

When Time, who steals our years away, 

Shall steal our pleasures too, 
The memory of the past will stay 

And half our joys renew. 

Then wish no more for vanished days, 

Our joys shall always last. 
For hope shall brighten days to come. 

And memory gild the past. 

THOMAS MOORE. 

[315] 



NOVEMBER 
Tenth Day 

I KNOW not what the future hath 
Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that hfe and death 
His mercy underlies. 

No offering of my own I have, 
No words my faith to prove ; 

I can but give the gifts He gave 
And plead His love for love. 

And so beside the Silent Sea 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 

I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air ; 

I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care. 

O brothers ! if my faith is vain, 

If hopes like these betray. 
Pray for me that my feet may gain 

The sure and safer way. 

WHiniER. 

[316] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Eleventh Day 

AY you be lifted above the world ! 



Fasten your soul so high, that constantly 
The smile of your heroic cheer may float 
Above all floods of earthly agonies, 
Purification being the joy of pain. 

MRS. BROWNING. 

There is no life so poor as that which has lost 
all conscious hold upon unseen realities. Lifted 
into the atmosphere of Infinite Greatness, the 
soul itself grows great ; enfolded within the Per- 
fect Love, the life itself becomes love. Oh, to 
feel the Eternal Life encircHng us, the life of 
which we are a part ! 

Build up, my soul, a lofty stair ; 
Build a room in healthier air ! 
Here there is no rest : 
Better climbs to best. 

May you gain by your losses 
And climb by your crosses, 
So high — so high 

That your forehead may touch the sky. 
[317] 



NOVEMBER 
Twelfth Day 

A MAN ought to keep his friendship in con- 
stant repair. I look upon a day as lost in 
which I do not make a new acquaintance. Make 
new friends and keep your old ones. 

SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

The friend who holds a mirror to my face, 
And hiding none, is not afraid to trace 
My faults, my smallest blemishes, within ; 
Who friendly warns, reproves me if I sin, — 
Although it seems not so — he is my friend. 
God grant me such a friend ! 

May your friends rest in your love and lean upon 
your strength. 

May I reach 
That purest heaven, be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony ; 
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, 
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty : 
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
And in diffusion ever more intense ; 
So shall I join the choir invisible 
Whose music is the gladness of the world. 

GEORGE ELIOT. 
[318] 



NOVEMBER 
Thirteenth Day 

ERE God forgive the guilt, 
Make man some restitution. 
Do your part 1 Robert browning. 

If you wish to be forgiven, it is indispensably 
required that you forgive. It is superfluous to 
urge any other motive. On this great duty 
eternity is suspended, and to him that refuses 
to practise it, the throne of mercy is inaccessible, 
and the Saviour of the world has been born in 
vain. SAMUEL johnson. 

Life is not long and the years are fleet, 
Bury all wrongs 'neath the dust at your feet, 
Let thy forgiveness be full, complete. 

Come, let us tear the barrier down 

That keeps us two apart ; 
Let us again walk hand in hand, 

Let heart respond to heart : 
Oh, let forgiveness sweet and full 

Blot out the troubled past — 
Sweet Love, who rights all human wrongs. 

Break down the wall at last ! 

ALICE LINNETTE LEACH. 
[319] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Fourteenth Day 

AY your sorrows be blessings in disguise ! 



I doubt whether God ever won a soul to heaven 
on which He had not first let fall some separate 
drops of grief which are, from their very nature, 
a secret between the soul and her God. 
But I could wish that each one of those drops 
which falls upon your soul might clarify your 
spiritual vision and melt your soul to love. 

E. H. SEARS. 

Sigh then, soul, but sing in sighing 
To the happier things replying : 
Dry the tears that dim thy seeing. 
Give glad thoughts for life and being ; 
Time is but the little entry 

To eternity's large dwelling, 
And the heavenly guards keep sentry, 

Urging, guiding, half-compelling. 
Till the puzzling way quite past. 
Thou shall enter in — at last ! 

SUSAN COOLIDGE. 

[320] 



M 



NOVEMBER 
Fifteenth Day 

AY you be strong with the strength of 
truth ! 



Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth : keep 
the door of my hps. psalm 141 : 3. 

May you "keep the door of the hps"! How 
easy, in our haste or impatience, to exaggerate, 
or to give the httle inflections of voice that create 
mistaken impressions. And yet, seeing the sim- 
ple dignity and graciousness of moderate speech, 
it should have an irresistible charm for us. 
But there is a carelessness of speech that may be 
criminal, for words are firebrands, and when the 
fires of dissension are burning, what can quench 
them ? Nothing but the simple words of sincerity 
and regret — and then, too often the fine fabric 
of friendship is so nearly destroyed as to impair 
its beauty. 

O wad some power the giftie gie us 
To see oursel's as ithers see us, 

It would frae monie a blunder free us 
And foolish notion. burns. 

[321] 



w 



NOVEMBER 
Sixteenth Day 

HAT wouldst thou have me see for 

thee? BAYARD TAYLOR. 



He went and came. But no man knows the track 
Of his last journey, and he comes not back ! 

O Vale of Chester ! trod by him so oft, 

Green as thy June turf keep his memory. Let 
Nor wood, nor dell, nor storied stream forget. 

Nor winds that blow around lonely Cedarcroft ; 

Let the home voices greet him in the far, 

Strange land that holds him ; let the messages 
Of love pursue him o'er the chartless seas 

And unmapped vastness of his unknown star ! 

Love's language, heard beyond the loud discourse 
Of perishable fame, in every sphere 
Itself interprets ; and its utterance here 

Somewhere in God's unfolding universe 

Shall reach our traveller, softening the surprise 
Of his rapt gaze on unfamiliar skies. 

WHITTIER. 



[322] 



NOVEMBER 
Seventeenth Day 

WHEN the winter night is falling 
Think of absent friends. 

Oh, could I serve thee, love and attend thee, 
Work for thee, cherish thee, shield and defend thee ! 

O wert thou in the cauld blast 

On yonder lea. 
My plaidie to the angry airt 

I'd shelter thee. 
Or did misfortune's bitter storms 

Around thee blaw. 
Thy shield should be my bosom 

To share it a'. 

Or were I in the wildest waste, 

Sae black and bare. 
The desert were a paradise 

If thou wert there. 
Or, were I monarch of the globe 

Wi' thee to reign, 
The brightest jewel in my crown 

Wad be my queen. burns. 

[323] 



I 



NOVEMBER 
Eighteenth Day 

HAVE prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. 

s. LUKE 22 : 32. 



Did the Eternal fulfil His gracious promises on 
the instant, where would be the trial of faith, and 
our confidence in prayer? 

Far better to believe that God's great wish for us 
is eternal although its joy has not yet entered into 
our lives, than to long for immediate fulfilment 
of our desires, however worthy they may be. 

Leaning on Him, make with reverent meekness 

His own thy will. 
And with strength from Him shall thy utter weak- 
ness, 

Life's task fulfil. whittier. 

Life is not long and the years are fleet, 
Bury all doubts 'neath the dust at your feet, 
Heaven may bring you a fruitage sweet. 

Oh, fear not in a world like this, 
And thou shalt know erelong. 

Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong ! 

LONGFELLOW. 

[324] 



NOVEMBER 
Nineteenth Day 

MY soul is sailing through the sea, 
But the Past is heavy and hindereth me. 
The Past hath crusted cumbrous shells 
That hold the flesh of cold sea-walls 

About my soul. 
The huge waves wash, the huge waves roll. 
Each barnacle clingeth and worketh dole 
And hindereth me from sailing ! 

Old Past, let go, and drop i* the sea 
Till fathomless waters cover thee 1 
For I am living, but thou art dead : 
Thou drawest back, I strive ahead 

The Day to find. 
Thy shells unbind ! Night comes behind, 
I needs must hurry with the wind 
And trim me best for sailing. 

SIDNEY LANIER. 

Have Hope ! the illuming hour draws near 
When love shall conquer pain and ill, 

And all the hosts of hate and fear 
Go down before the might of will. 

[325] 



NOVEMBER 
Twentieth Day 

A Pleasant Awakening. 

"/^~^00D morning!" What a wish is bound 
V_X up in that simple salutation ! Every morn- 
ing is a new beginning. The freshness and 
buoyancy of youth is within our veins, and the 
beautiful possibilities of the day stretch out in 
long, dehghtful perspective. And what must the 
^^ Good morning" of heaven be? No clouds to 
dim the sky, no care to cloud the spirit, no loss 
to sadden the heart. "Everything is good." It 
is indeed a good morning, we shall wish each 
other there. 

Life ! we've been long together 
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather ; 
'Tis hard to part when friends are dear, — - 
Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 

Then steal away, give little warning, 
Choose thine own time; 

Say not Good Night, — but in some brighter clime 
Bid me Good Morning. 

ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD. 
[326] 



H 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty-first Day 

OLD me up and I shall be safe. 

The white doves brood low 
With innocent flight, 
Higher, my soul, higher ! 
Into the night — 
Into black night. 

Beyond where the eagle 
Soars strong to the sun, 
Naught hast thou if only 
Earth's stars be won. 
Earth's stars are won. 

Beyond where God's angels 
Stand silent, in might, 
Higher, my soul, higher ! 
Into the light. 
Straight to God's light. 

Practise thy spirit to high thoughts. 

As the flame mounts upward, so may thy soul 
yearn after its Creator. 

[327] 



I 



o 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty -second Day 

N the battle-field of life 

May you more than victor be ! 



May you have spiritual insight to behold the hand 
of God in. all earthly experiences, to know what 
is the meaning and purpose of care and sorrow ; 
to know what it means to be thwarted and turned 
aside from cherished purposes ; to have our pride 
humbled and our vanity put to shame, and to be 
made to pine for things not reached. 
May you respect the mystery of God's provi- 
dences and seek to co-operate with them in work- 
ing out those higher conditions of spiritual life 
which He demands. 

Would that we might emerge into the light of 
a newer faith ; gain victories over our besetting 
sins ; conquer inbred failings ; gain clearer im- 
pulses of conscience. Such victories as these 
are our beacon-moments of life. Would that 
they might shine brightly enough to illuminate 
all our onward way ! 

[328] 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty -third Day 

I WISHED that a rainbow might stretch its arch 
From the earth to the bending sky, 
That an angel form might cross the space 

Which measured so far and high ; 
But I looked in vain : oh, my eyes were dim 

And my restless soul was fain 
For the touch of a loved and vanished hand 
To dispel or soothe its pain. 

I gazed and I gazed till my eyes were dim, 

I gazed till the morning woke. 
But no rainbow arch was in the sky 

And no sound the stillness broke ; 
But a wind from heaven blew hght and cool 

As it fanned my fevered soul. 
While the clouds above sailed soft and slow. 

And my spirit was made whole. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

My heart leaps up when I behold 
A rainbow in the sky ; 

So was it when my Hfe began, 

So is it now I am a man. 
So be it when I shall grow old. 

WORDSWORTH. 

[3291 



o 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty -fourth Day 

NLY one wish thy soul should know- 
Thy Heavenly Father's will to do. 



We must needs walk under a cloud of circum- 
stances, but light may shine through the cloud, 
and mingling with its darkness make that new 
condition in which it is best for a man's soul to 
live, — that sweet and strong condition in which 
both joy and sorrow may have place, but which is 
greater than either of them, — the condition which 
God calls peace. That you may walk worthy of 
the Lord, being beautiful in every good work, 
increasing in knowledge of God, is the wish of 
my heart. 

O Christ ! whose human heart remembers still 

The pangs from which death only gives release, 
Strange griefs, strange fears, our yearning souls 
must fill, 
Withhold what else Thou wilt, — but give us 
Peace ! julia c. r. dorr. 

Gentle heart, if night alone 

Bring thee thoughts of peace. 
Take the lesson that it brings^ 
Let the striving cease, 
[330] 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty-fifth Day 

OVER the village there shone a star 
Out of the evening glory, 
And I followed its beacon up to the hill 
Where standeth a ruin hoary. 

It hid the star from my longing gaze 

Till I left its shadow afar, 
And climbed to the open hillside, where 

Was naught between me and the star. 

And I cried to the star, *^ Oh, would that I were 

Pure, bright, and calm like thee. 
To shine o'er the earth with lustre rare. 

From earth's mists and shadows free." 

"Wait," whispered the star, "the mists of earth 

That rest on thy spirit now. 
Shall vanish soon in the Hght of heaven 

When it brightens thy weary brow." 



High purposes and sweet desires 
Aye kindle in thee holy fires ! 

So in thy ardent soul may swell 

The force which shall thy life impel. 

[331] 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty -sixth Day 

I ASK not now for gold to gild 
With mocking shine a weary frame ; — 
The yearning of the mind is stilled, — 
I ask not now for fame. 

A rose-cloud, dimly seen above, 

Melting in heaven's blue depths away, — 

sweet, fond dream of human Love 
For thee I may not pray. 

But bowed in lowliness of mind, 

I make my humble wishes known, — 

1 only ask a will resigned, 

Father, to Thine own ! 

To-day beneath Thy chastening eye 

1 crave alone for peace and rest. 
Submissive in Thy hand I lie. 

And feel that it is best. 

And now my spirit sighs for home, 
And longs for light whereby to see. 

And like a weary child, would come, 
O Father, unto Thee. 

WHITTIER. 

[332J 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty- seventh Day 

MAY the fountain of your heart send up only 
sweet waters. Bright days or dark days, 
may you make your own sunshine. 

'Tis but the mortal doom 
Some days all wrapt in gloom 

111 fortune sends us, 
But love's celestial ray 
Lightens the darkest day 

Destiny sends us. 

Or if a gloomy day 
Steal from thy life away 

That happy shining, 
May'st those in darker hours 
Find in each cloud that lowers 

The silver lining. 

EMILY BARNARD. 

Most fair content, I wish that from my home 

Thou wouldst not roam, 

But ever brood like dove upon its nest, 

And soothe my mind from troubled thoughts to 

rest, 
Come sweetest guest. emily barnard. 

[333] 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty-eighth Day 

THE things that come to us and the things 
that depart from us, the weaknesses show- 
ing the giving out of strength and the taking 
down of the tabernacle, the dimness of sight, 
the dulness of hearing, the growth of infirmities, 
the weariness of hfe, what are these but signals 
which God is giving to us. The yearning for rest, 
the longing for those who have gone out from 
among us ; what are these but sweet and golden 
cords let down that are drawing us in thine 
own pleasure. Even so, come Lord Jesus, come 
quickly. beecher. 

Where'er I look, where'er I stray, 
Thy thought goes with me on my way. 
And hence the prayer I breathe to-day. 

If then, a fervent wish for thee 

The gracious heavens will heed from me. 

What should, dear heart, its burden be ? 

The sighing of a shaken reed, — 
What can I more than meekly plead 
The greatness of our common need ? 

WHllTIER. 

[334] 



c 



NOVEMBER 
Twenty-ninth Day 

OME unto the Lord with thanksgiving. 



Let us give thanks to God upon Thanksgiving 
Day. Nature is beautiful and fellow-men are 
dear, and He is over us and in us. What more 
do we want except to be more thankful, more 
faithful, and more worthy of the tasks and privi- 
leges He has given us. 

We would trust Him with a fuller trust, and so at 
last to come to that high life where we shall ^' Be 
careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer 
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let our re- 
quest be made known unto God." 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

We have gathered the harvest from shore to shore 
And the measure is full and running o'er. 
Then lift up the head with a song ! 
And lift up the hands with a gift. 
To the ancient Giver of all 

The spirit in gratitude lift. 
Thanksgiving ! Thanksgiving ! Thanksgiving ! 

Joyfully, gratefully call, 
To God the " Preserver of Men," 

The bountiful Father of all ! a. e. barr. 

[335] 



NOVEMBER 
Thirtieth Day 

NEVER any wish can be amiss when simple- 
ness and duty tender it. shakspeare. 

So much, so much I love thee, Sweet, 

So dear you are to me, 
I wish for naught but your own joy, 

Wherever you may be. 
Wherever you may be, my Love, 

Or here or far away, 
I wish thee more than speech can tell 

Or more than tongue can say. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 

I wish thee 

Flowers unsought, in desert places 

Flashing enchantment on the sight. 
For radiance on familiar faces 

As they pass upward into light. 

Ah, take the imperfect wish I bring, 
Knowing the primrose yet is dear. 
The primrose of the later yeai^ 

As not unlike to that of Spring. 

TENNYSON. 

[336] 








€ 



■W^^^'^ 



i(iS^^ 



^^inginq comehh in hhe mornina, 
^vx God shall wipe hhy hears away! 



rr\iiK'c\s Iviillcv fl^n .'! 




DECEMBER 



First Day 



H 



EAP logs and let the blaze laugh out. 

BROWNING. 



The olden glory shines along the way 
And makes a path to guide God's Christmas Day. 
Oh, may its radiance linger with you, friend, 
Till shadows flee away and time shall end. 

How they come and go — the solemn months and 
years ! Slipping, slipping by, until, as some day 
we try to scan our lives, we find the retrospect is 
longer than the prospect. And then the heart 
grows sad with sense of loss and wasted oppor- 
tunities. 

But if we have lived to God instead of for self 
alone, we may find some beautiful surprises 
awaiting us in the other life. 
God grant that it may be so ! 
[337] 



M 



DECEMBER 
Second Day 

AY you be clothed upon with purity. 

Heavenly Father, I would wear 

Angel garments, white and fair : 

Angel vesture undefiled 

Wilt Thou give unto Thy child? 

Thus apparelled I^shalL be 

As a signal set for Thee, 

That the wretched and the weak 

May the same fair garments seek. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

Roll your ball of snow, children, 

Roll your ball of snow ; 
The more you roll your snowball up 

The bigger it will grow. 

Roll a good wish round, children, 

Roll it all around. 
Until it gathers all kind thoughts 

That gentle hearts have found. 

J. E. McCANN. 

May trouble fall upon you as the snowflakes fall 
upon the earth. 

[338] 



DECEMBER 
Third Day 

MAY we feel that all our times and seasons are 
in the hand of God, that everything which 
we possess cornes from Him and is to be recalled 
at His pleasure. As there are times when we may 
roam through pleasant fields plucking flowers, so 
will there be other times when we must wander 
over rough ways bearing heavy burdens. 
But when the glory of summer vanishes from our 
skies and the storms of winter are upon us, we 
thank God for the clouds as well as the sunshine. 
Then will it be easy to say, *^ Thy will be done." 

The days may pass, the flowers may die. 
And much we cherished once go by. 

May turn December, 
The skies grow gray that once were blue — 
What matters if your wish come true. 

And friends remember ! 

A wyshe I have for thee thys Chrystmasse-tyde, 
Maye joye and alle gladde thynges 
The seasonne brynges 

Gette to thee and abyde. 

[339] 



B 



DECEMBER 
Fourth Day 

E links no longer broken, 
Be sweet forgiveness spoken, 
Under the holly-bough. 



Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. If it 
is a fearful thing in God's sight to carry resent- 
ment in our hearts beyond the setting of the 
daily sun, how much more so to carry such a 
dark and heavy burden over the threshold of 
the new year. Let go of the past with all its 
wrongs, while forgiveness drops its balm into your 
heart like dew. How can we pray " Forgive us 
our trespasses '^ unless we can also add *^ as we 
forgive those who trespass against us." We dare 
not ^yi the metes and bounds of the Divine for- 
giveness, and can we who are sinful demand 
more than does He who is sinless? Unless we 
can forgive as we are forgiven, we must 
" Bow our foreheads to the dust 

And veil our eyes for shame, 
And urge, in trembling self-distrust, 

A prayer without a claim." 

[340] 



DECEMBER 
Fifth Day 

'THIME touch thee gently ! 

May the frosts of age rest hghtly upon your head, 
so that the gold of your spring-time may shine 
through the snows of winter. And the glory of 
age, what is it but the beauty of a well-spent life 
reflecting itself in the face and through the eyes ? 

So Httle time left now for wishing ! A long year 
stretches backward, and in every changing season 
I have seen some beautiful gift to covet for you — 
sunshine and bird-songs — fountains and flowers 
— friends and prosperity — fame and fortune — 
all the good things which this life can bring you. 
Nothing left to wish for now but that the memory 
of these wishes may keep your heart warm even 
in the snows of December and age. And beneath 
it all is the never-dying wish that whatever you 
may have missed in this life may be made up to 
you an hundred fold in the hfe to come. 



[341] 



F 



DECEMBER 

Sixth Day 

AITHFUL love be yours. 



When o'er the earth lies winter^s chill 
May hearth- fires glow for you, 

When age comes on so cold and chill, 
May fond hearts still be true. 

We long for tenderness like that which hung 

About us, Ipng on our mother's breast ; 
A selfish feeling, that no pen or tongue 

Can praise aright, since silence sings it best ; 
A love, as far removed from passion's heat 

As from the chillness of its dying fire ; 
A love to lean on when the failing feet 

Begin to totter and the eyes to tire. 
In youth's brief heyday hottest love we seek, 

The reddest rose we grasp — but when it dies 
God grant the latter blossoms, violets meek, 

May spring for us beneath hfe's autumn skies ! 
God grant some loving one be near to bless 
Our weary way with simple tenderness. 

[342] 



DECEMBER 
Seventh Day 

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy 
and peace in believing, that you may 
abound in hope, through the power of the Holy 
Ghost. ROMANS 15 : 13. 



^' Now I lay me down to sleep " — 
Jesus, Saviour, when I'm dying, 

Hear that hfe-long wish and prayer 
When life's last wish I am sighing, 

From the old dream let me wake : 

" Pray the Lord my soul to take." 



Tears which have sadly fallen — 

Still let them He impearled 
Within the snowy whiteness 

That rests on all the world ] 
Through all life's jarring discord 

And doubts that cloud our way. 
We'll take fresh strength and courage 

With every new-born day. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[343] 



DECEMBER 
Eighth Day 

THE Lord hear thee in the day of trouble ; 
the name of the God of Jacob defend 
thee. PSALM 20 : I. 

God be with you till we meet again, 

By His counsels, guide, uphold you, 
With His sheep securely fold you, 

God be with you till we meet again. 

God be with you till we meet again, 

'Neath His wings securely hide you, 
Daily manna still provide you, 

God be with you till we meet again. 

God be with you till we meet again. 

When life's perils thick confound you, 
Put His arms unfailing round you, 

God be with you till we meet again. 

God be with you till we meet again. 

Keep love's banner floating o'er you. 
Smite death's threatening wave before you, 

God be with you till we meet again. 

[344] 



DECEMBER 
Ninth Day 

WHEN I reflect how little I have done 
And add to that how little I have seen, 
Then furthermore how little I have won, 
Of joy or good how little known or been : 
I long for other life more full and keen, 
And yearn to change with such as well have run — 
Yet reason mocks me — nay, the soul, I ween. 
Granted her choice, would dare to change with 
none. jean ingelow. 

When the Yule-log burns upon the hearth, 

With carol, chime, and Christmas cheer, 
K fire should kindle in each soul 

To gladden all the coming year ; 
A flame to brighten heart and home. 

And shine as well for other eyes. 
Fed by good deeds which still glow on 

When dim and cold the Yule-log lies. 

Then kindle Yule logs far and wide 

To burn on every happy hearth, 
Fit symbols of the faith and love • 

That purify and bless the earth. 

LOUISA M. ALCOTT. 

[345] 



R 



DECEMBER 
Tenth Day 

ISE ! Aspire ! 



The desire of the moth for the star, 
Of the night for the morrow, 

The devotion to something afar 
From the sphere of our sorrow. 

SHELLEY. 

Let your wishes mount high. Soar upon the 
wings of aspiration, and you are by that much 
nearer to your ideal. 

I was fain for a star. 

And I reached afar 

And caught but the firefly's light — 
But its glow remained. 

And its radiance stained 

The shades of the gloomy night. 

Reach high for thy prize, 
Let thy spirits rise 

To the lights that shine afar ; 
Though thy empty clasp 
Miss the eager grasp. 

Yet thy thoughts have reached the star ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[346] 



M 



DECEMBER 
Eleventh Day 

AY flowers bloom for you beneath the snow. 



Just as in mem'ry summer flowers 
Still paint the darkest wintry hours 

When they have perished, 
Although they may be far away, 
They still are with us, day by day, 

The friends w^e've cherished. 

A word will bring them back to mind, 
A sudden thought, a greeting kind, 

A moment's dreaming ; 
We recollect the days that were, 
And see again their blossoms fair, 

Their sunlight gleaming. 

So may dark days still bring to you 
Sweet dreams of when the sky was blue 

And winds blew kinder. 
And may my simple message be 
To you of my regard and me 

A sweet reminder. 

CLIFTON BINGHAM. 
[347] 



M 



DECEMBER 
Twelfth Day 

AY God supply all your need. 



And now with a new sense of gratitude, with glad 
memories of the old year so soon to close, and 
with hopeful confidence in view of the new year 
that is approaching, we come afresh to Thy feet, 
O God ; to Thee who hast crowned the year with 
Thy goodness ; to Thee whose years do not 
change ; to Thee who hast declared that Thy Son, 
our Mediator and Redeemer, is the same yester- 
day, to-day, and forever. Fulfil Thy blessed 
Word to us in the experiences that are before us, 
and abide with us even unto the end. 

Thou knowest. Lord, Thou knowest all about me. 
And all the winding way my feet have trod ; 

Be with me now, I cannot go without Thee, 
To guide me onward through the sweUing flood. 

Thou knowest my way, how lone, how cheerless, 
If Thy dear hand in all I fail to see ; 

Bright with Thy smile my heart is fearless. 
When in my weakness I can lean on Thee. 

[348] 



I 



DECEMBER 
Thirteenth Day 

ASK youth and strength and help for each 
one of you, not more. Robert browning. 

Little I ask ; my wants are few j 

I only wish a hut of stone, 
(A very plain brown stone will do,) 

That I may call my own ; — 
And close at hand is such a one, 
In yonder street that fronts the sun. 

Jewels are baubles ; 'tis a sin 

To care for such unfruitful things ; — 

One good- sized diamond in a pin, — 
Some, not so large, in rings, — 

A ruby and a pearl or so 

Will do for me ; — I laugh at show. 

Thus humble let me live and die. 
Nor long for Midas' golden touch ; 

If heaven more generous gifts deny, 
I shall not miss them much, — 

Too grateful for the blessing lent 

Of simple tastes and mind content ! 

HOLMES. 
[349] 



DECEMBER 
Fourteenth Day 

Wish for an Old Poet, 

WHEN he is old and past all singing, 
Grant, kindly Time, that he may hear 
The rhythm through joyous nature ringing, 
Uncaught by any duller ear. 

Grant that, in memory's deeps still cherished, 
Once more may murmur low to him 

The winds that sung in years long perished. 
Lit by the sun of days grown dim. 

Grant that the hours when first he listened 
To bird-songs manhood may not know, 

In fields whose dew for lovers glistened 
May come back to him ere he go. 

Grant only this, O Time most kindly, 
That he may hear the song you sung 

When love was new — and hearkening blindly, 
Feign his o'er-wearied spirit young. 

With sound of rivers singing round him. 
On waves that long since flowed away, 

Oh, leave him. Time, where first Love found him. 
Dreaming to-morrow into to-day ! 

HENRY CUYLER BONNER. 
[350] 



M 



DECEMBER 
Fifteenth Day 

AY you find the world grows better as you 

go along. MRS. ARCHIBALD. 



Oh, Old Father Time grows tender and mellow, 
As, roving the round earth, the sturdy old fellow, 
Year in and year out, keeps coming and going. 
In winter's wild wrack and in summer's green 
blowing ; 

And he very well knows 

That, wherever he goes, 
('Tis as plain to be seen as his frosty old nose,) 

In each new broken fetter 

His wish, like a letter. 
That this jolly round world should grow better and 
better. lewis j. bates. 

We are leaving the old year behind us. As we 
face another period of time may the wish grow 
in our hearts that we may lift ourselves up to 
a higher life, where we can obtain clearer and 
truer conceptions of duty. But our courage will 
be in vain, and all our good resolutions will sleep, 
as sentinels over-wearied at their post, unless we 
listen to that Voice which speaks to the inner 
consciousness alone. beecher. 

[351] 



M 



DECEMBER 
Sixteenth Day 

AY your heart be fixed above. 



The temporary is melting away Hke a cloud in 
the sky that the eternal may be seen. The fashion 
of this world is passing away that the spiritual 
realities may be clear. Oh, to keep the eternal 
verities in mind ! Phillips brooks. 

The one remains, the many change and pass, 
Earth's shadows fly as shadows on a glass. 

SHELLEY. 

Yours be a faith that shall discern, a trust that 
shall rest in Christ, and a love that shall be able 
to find Him wherever He is. May you feel that 
the flame which lights your path is divine, and 
that your guidance is from above. beecher. 

Make thou the Holy Guide thine own. 
And, following where it leads the way, 

The known shall lapse in the unknown, 
As twihght into day. 

The best of earth shall still remain. 
And heaven's eternal years shall prove 

That life and death and joy and pain 
Are ministers of love. 
[352] 



DECEMBER 
Seventeenth Day 



M 



Y times are in Thy hand, O Lord ! 
Go Thou with me and I am safe. 

DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 



In the still air the music hes unheard ; 

In the rough marble beauty hides unseen : 
To make the music and the beauty, needs 

The master's touch, the sculptor's chisel keen. 

Great Master, touch us with Thy skilful hand. 
Let not the music that is in us die ; 

Great Sculptor, hew and polish us, nor let, 
Hidden and lost, Thy form within us lie. 

Spare not the stroke, do with us as Thou wilt ; 

Let there be nought unfinished, broken^ marred ; 
Complete Thy purpose, that we may become 

Thy perfect image, O our God and Lord. 

BONAR, 

May you learn to regard the souls around you as 
parts of some grand instrument. It is for each 
of us to know the keys and stops, that we may 
draw forth the harmonies that lie sleeping in the 
octaves. 

[353] 



DECEMBER 
Eighteenth Day 

GOD give us men — tall men, sun-crowned ! 
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI. 

And so mayst thou 
Assert thyself and rise to thy full height. 

LONGFELLOW. 

How large a part of our Godward life is travelled, 
not by clear landmarks seen far off in the prom- 
ised land, but as travellers climb a mountain 
peak, by putting footstep after footstep slowly and 
patiently into the prints which some one going 
before us, with keener sight, with stronger nerves, 
tied to us by the cord of saintly sympathy, has 
planted deep into the pathless snow of the bleak 
distance stretching up between humanity and 
God ! Oh, to keep in sight those guiding foot- 
steps ! 

Every wish is a prayer. God's inspiration in us 
is our aspiration towards God. Thus we bring 
back the ideal with which He sent us into the 
world. It is the character hourly growing purer, 
more loving, stronger in patience, in self-conquest 
and self-sacrifice which really honors God. This 
growth be yours ! lucy larcom. 

[354] 



B 



DECEMBER 
Nineteenth Day 

EAR a lily in thy hand ; 
Gates of brass cannot withstand 
One touch of that magic wand. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Let me not live for self; but tell 

My anxious spirit how to cope 

With doubts and weakness, blasted hope, 

In souls where heavenly peace should dwell ; 

To help aright, 

Where fails the sight, 

On to the goal, eternal, sure, 

With purpose strong and motive pure. 

ELIZABETH CHERRY HAIRE. 

Fast, fast the lengthening shadows creep. 

The songless fowls are half asleep. 

The air grows chill, the setting sun 

May leave thee ere thy song is done. 

The pulse that warms thy breast grow cold, 

Thy secret die with thee, untold : 

The Hngering sunset still is bright, 

Sing, little bird ! 'twill soon be night. 

[355] 



DECEMBER 
Twentieth Day 

YET love me, wilt thou? Open thine heart 
wide 
And fold within the wet wings of thy dove. 

MRS. BROWNING. 

" I wish that he were come to me, 

For he will come," she said. 
" Have I not prayed in heaven — on earth 

Lord, Lord, has he not prayed ? 
Are not two prayers a perfect strength, 

And shall I feel afraid?" 

She gazed, then listened and then said. 
Less sad of speech than mild — 

"All this is when he comes." She ceased. 
The light thrilled through her, filled 

With angels in strong, level flight. 
Her eyes prayed, and she smiled. 

(I saw her smile.) But soon their path 

Was vague in distant spheres : 
And then she cast her arms along 

The golden barriers. 
And laid her face between her hands, 

And wept. (I heard her tears.) 

D. G. ROSSEITI. 

[356] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty-first Day 

NOTE pussy's wisdom. Let there be 
One gleam of sunshine on the floor, 
Basking in that one ray will she 

Contented purr and wish not more. 
Let pussy's calm example teach 

Content — and all the rest of it. 
Welcome such sunshine as there is — 
And learn to make the best of it ! 

FREDERIC A. WHITING. 

" Only a housemaid ! " She looked from the 
kitchen, — 

Neat was the kitchen, and tidy was she ; 
There at her window a seamstress sat stitching : 

" Were I a seamstress, how happy I'd be ! " 

'^ Only a Queen ! " She looked over the waters, — 

Fair was her kingdom and mighty was she ; 
There sat an Empress, with Queens for her 
daughters ; 

"Were I an Empress, how happy I'd be !" 
Still the old frailty they all of them trip in ! 

Eve in her daughters is ever the same ; 
Give her all Eden, she sighs for a pippin ; 

Give her an empire, she pines for a name ! 

[357] HOLMES. 



DECEMBER 

Twenty - second Day 

LORD, make me know mine end, and the 
measure of my days, what it is ; that I may 
know how frail I am. psalm 39 : 4. 

Break, break, break, 

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 

The thoughts that arise in me. 

O well for the fisherman's boy, 

That he shouts with his sister at play ! 

O well for the sailor lad. 

That he sings in his boat on the bay ! 

And the stately ships go on 

To their haven under the hill ; 
But O for the touch of a vanished hand. 

And the sound of a voice that is still ! 

Break, break, break. 

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea ! 
But the tender grace of a day that is dead 

Will never come back to me. 

TENNYSON. 

[358] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty -third Day 

" 'T^HAT sweetest gift, dear Lord, bestow 
JL On all Thy children far and wide, 
And give them hearts as pure as snow,'^ 

Prayed Santa Glaus — ''at Christmas tide ! " 

Touch us gently. Time ! 
WeVe not proud nor soaring wings, 

Our ambition, our content 

Lies in simple things. 
Humble voyagers are we 
0*er life's dim, unsounded sea. 
Seeking only some calm clime ; — 
Touch us gently, gently. Time ! 

BRYAN WALLER PROCTOR. 

The circling months move swiftly round, 
The wheel of Time flies fast, 

Oh, hasten, soul, to claim life's prize 
Before thine hour is past ! 

So swift they move, the circling months. 

So far they glide away. 
Or ere we look them in the face 

The year is old and gray. 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[359] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty -fourth Day 

I SEND thee greetings, dear, my friend, 
Through time and change and space; 
All Christmas joys their fulness lend, 
All gracious influence toward thee tend, 
All gifts and graces round thee blend, — 
Each with its special grace — 
And blessings rest on thee ! 

From countries far beyond the sea 
Whence hallowed memories float, 

From Bethlehem and Galilee, 

From Hermon and Gethsemane, 

May voices reach thee, sweet and free. 
Distinct, although remote — 
And blessings bring to thee ! 

From distant heights where floats thy prayer 

Where life and fulness is. 
From spaces high and heav'nly — fair, 
Where vibrant wing-beats stir the air. 
Where healing waits on mortal care, 

O friend, God grant thee this — 
His blessing upon thee ! 

MARTHA CAPPS OLIVER. 
[360] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty-fifth Day 

GOD rest ye, merrie gentlemen, 
Upon this Christmas morn, 
The 'God of all good Christians 
This Christmas Day was born. 

A bright and happy Christmas to you ! Lift up 
yourselves to the great meaning of the day, and 
dare to think of your humanity as something so 
sublimely precious that it is worthy of being 
made an offering to God, and then go out to the 
pleasures and duties of your life, having been 
truly born anew into His Divinity, as He was 
born into our humanity on Christmas Day. 

PHILLIPS BROOKS. 

Then welcome snow of Christmas, 

We read thy prophecy. 
We know what wish hes hidden, 

What germs of life may be 
Concealed beneath thy mantle. 

All folded close away. 
Awaiting their fruition. 

In heaven's eternal day. m. c. o. 

[361] 



DECEMBER 

Twenty -sixth Day 



F 



ORTUNE love you ! 



Good fortune attend thee J 
Good angels defend thee ! 
Good thoughts possess thee ! 

SHAKSPEARE. 

Lean not on one mind constantly, 

Lest where one stood before, two fall ; 

Something hath God to say to thee 
Worth hearing from the lips of all. 

OWEN MEREDITH. 

Get to thy work. He that labors may be tempted 
by one devil; but he that is idle is tempted by 
a thousand. Italian proverb. 

This is the test of growth. Every ray of sun 
which does not open the ground to new sunlight 
is not feeding it, but baking it. May we estabUsh 
the conditions of growth within ourselves, and 
then confidently await the fructifying influences 
which lie in the providences of God. 

•Though growing with scarce a showing. 
Yet please God, keep us growing. 

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, 

[362] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty -seventh Day 



O 



H, rest beside the weary road 
And hear the angels shig. 

E. H. SEARS. 



Behold the New Year beckons like a flower 
Hid in its roots among the untrodden hills ; 

God shows thee how its sweetness every hour 
Grows only as His breath thy spirit fills. 

Who comes dancing over the snow, 
His little soft feet all bare and rosy? 

Open the door, though the wild winds blow ; 
Take the child in and make him cosey, 

Take him in, and hold him dear : 

He is the wonderful New Year. 

Make him a wish, be it sad or gay. 

Welcome him now, and use him kindly ; 

For you must carry him, yea or nay. 
Carry him with shut eyes all blindly. 

But whether he bring joy or fear 

Take him ! God sends him — this good New Year. 



[363] 



T 



DECEMBER 
Twenty -eighth Day 

HE Lord watch betv/een me and thee, when 
we are absent one from another. 

GENESIS 31 : 49. 

So the year's done with, 

(Love me forever ! ) 
All March begun with, 

April's endeavor ; 
May wreathes that bound us 

June needs must sever. 
Now snows fall around us 

Quenching June's fever, 

(Love me forever !) swinburne. 

The Lord be with us till we sleep, 

And then all labor done. 
Into the light of His long day 

Receive us every one. 

HELEN MARION BURNSIDE. 

And if I should live to be 
The last leaf upon the tree 

In the Spring, 
Let them smile, as I do now, 
At the old forsaken bough 

Where I cling. holmes. 

[364] 



DECEMBER 
Twenty-ninth Day 

O FRIENDS ! the old year is fast slipping back 
behind us. We cannot stay it if we would. 
We must go forth and leave our past. May we 
go forth nobly. May we go as those whom 
greater thoughts and greater deeds await beyond. 
Let us go humbly, solemnly, bravely, as those 
must go who go to meet the Lord. With firm, 
quiet, serious steps, full of faith, full of hope, 
may we go to meet Him who will certainly judge 
us when we meet Him, but who loves us while 
He judges us, and who, if we are obedient, will 
make us, by the discipline of all the years, fit for 
the everlasting world where life shall count itself 
by years no longer, Phillips brooks. 

Frosty-bearded Father Time, 
Stop your footfall on the rime ! 
Hard your push, your hand is rough ; 
You have swung me long enough. 
"Nay, no stopping," say you? Well, 
Some of your best stories tell. 
While you swing me, gently do ! — 
From the Old Year to the New. 

LUCY LARCOM. 

[365] 



DECEMBER 
Thirtieth Day 

Now as the moments slip away 
The midnight bells sweep o'er the sky — 
" Good bye, old year, " we softly say — 

^^ Oh, dear old year — good bye — good bye ! " 
And as across the drifted snows 

The lingering footsteps die away, 
A silence on us falls and grows — 
We fold our hands and inly pray, — 

" God bless for us the glad young year 

Which up the far horizon springs — 
To all we hold most near and dear. 

May it bring bright and gracious things. 
May Time's fleet footsteps noiseless go 

For them in love's unfading flowers, 
And friendship shake, with hands that glow, 

The golden sands that mark the hours." 

HELEN MARION BURNSIDE. 

E'en while he sings he smiles his last. 
And leaves our sphere behind. 

The good old year is with the past ; 
Oh, be the new as kind ! 

BRYANT. 

[366] 



DECEMBER 
Thirty-first Day 

LET the thick curtain fall ; 
I better know them all : 
How Httle I have gained, 
How vast the unattained. whittier. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark, 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 

When I have crossed the bar. 

TENNYSON. 

One wish ere yet the long year ends ; 

Let's close it with a parting rhyme, 
A pledge, a hand, to all our friends 

As fits the merry Christmas time : 
On life's wide scene you, too, have parts, 

That Fate ere long shall bid you play ; 
Good-night : with honest, gentle hearts, 

A kindly greeting go alway. 

THACKERAY. 

[367] 



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